El Fon Blog

Today Fon and JoikuSoft announce their collaboration in a software addon for Symbian phones, called “JoikuSpot”. You can buy it in their JoikuShop at an introductory price of €15. It uses 3G or GPRS as your Internet backhaul (WAN), and built-in wifi for the hotspot (possibly in peer-to-peer mode instead of AP mode), so you to can share your bandwidth wherever you go!

My first thought, of course, is how this is excellent news for homeless Bills who have been encumbered by the extra weight of a La Fonera router, cables, and battery packs. Now, when they sell wifi at the train station, they only need to carry a single device with them! Hopefully, Fon can partner with a major cellco and negotiate a discount on their unlimited data plans for this charitable purpose.

JoikuSpot supports the following cellphone models (with an appropriate carrier, “unlimited” high speed data plan providing 3G/GPRS, and wifi enabled on the phone): Samsung i550, Samsung G810, Nokia N95 Americas, Nokia N95 8GB Americas, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N95, Nokia N93i, Nokia N93, Nokia N91, Nokia N82, Nokia N81 8GB, Nokia N81, Nokia N80, Nokia N78, Nokia N77, Nokia E90, Nokia E71, Nokia E70, Nokia E66, Nokia E65, Nokia E61i, Nokia E61, Nokia E60, Nokia E51.

JoikuSpot Premium also includes a VPN client to secure your connection to home or corporate VPN server. JoikuSpot Premium does not force visitors to a default landing page, and is also 100% customizable for operator whitelabeling and licencing.

More information here:
Joikusoft and FON work together
Joikusoft and FON Unveil Wi-Fi HotSpot Software
Joikusoft and FON unveil Wi-Fi HotSpot software
Joiku, FON to offer premium mobile hotspot software
FON and JoikuSoft Introduce FonSpot Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot Software

Canadian researchers Catherine Middleton and Amelia Bryne Potter, have written a paper comparing the hardware, software and community aspects of Meraki Wireless Network with Fon Wireless, Ltd. Written in May of this year, it has been published on the Internet:
Is it Good to Share?(.pdf link) (Alternate Link)

The authors do not appear to have any links with either company, though Ms. Potter is a member of a community wireless research project. There are some very interesting points made about Fon, which echo ones made by myself and other outspoken Foneros over the last two years. There seems to be more criticism for Fon, but some of the comparison points might be a little unfair. It’s like comparing apples to oranges, or in this case, Meraki lime to Fon orange.

The Frankfurt court of appeals has ruled in favor of a German citizen, accused of sharing copyrighted music files over the Internet. The defendant had been previously ruled guilty, though he pled that someone else was guilty of the offense, using his open wifi hotspot. The court of appeals recognized that there was insufficient evidence to prove the defendant guilty in the first place, and that German citizens are not automatically guilty of offenses committed by others, using their unrestricted Internet connections. Read this arstechnica.com article

This may be great news for Foneros in Germany who worry about their liabilities, when they provide a Fon hotspot! Fon does not consider their hotspots “open”, but neither do they really qualify as “closed”. Fon hotspots are not encrypted, and Internet access can be obtained instantly, without proving one’s identity. Additionaly, a hacker might sniff traffic in order to capture an Alien’s Fon session cookies, then spoof their MAC address, to continue their valid Fon session after the Alien has shut her PC down for the day.

Unfortunately, there have been similar incidents here in the USA, where the courts did not accept the “open hotspot” defense. So far, none of these has involved a Fon hotspot. It remains to be seen whether Fon will provide evidence which could exonerate an innocent suspect.

All over Spain, including Madrid and Alcobendas (HQ of Fon), Wireless Citizens are finding that they can no longer log into Swisscomm wifi at their favorite Starbucks!

Isn’t this is a good opportunity for the “World’s Biggest Wifi Community” to take a shot at replacing them? Lucky Bills near these coffeehouses may allready be seeing increased profits.

Now, Starbucks doesn’t want people hanging out in the shop all day, without buying drinks and snacks. Though Fon promotes the idea of “$€3/day”, they also have proven that there is no problem implimenting “15 free minutes”, “60 minutes via SMS” and “5-day passes” as alternatives.

Bill Foneros have urged Fon to impliment a “voucher” system in the past. I think the time has arrived for Fon to impliment such a system for merchants who use Fon!

Merchants could print out a sheet full of voucher codes once a day, through a special MyFon page, and cut them into separate slips of paper. These vouchers would supply an hour or two of wifi, and be useable for 24 hours from the time of creation. Starbuck’s patrons would each create a Fonero account, and then enter their voucher code as payment. Fon could reward “frequent flyers” with Starbucks coupons or other benefeits.

Starbucks might pay Fon a small amount for each voucher which gets used, and Fon would share half of the net profits with Starbucks, just like with Bills. Publicity for both partners would be very good if this plan works out!