Big money for grassroots sharing
Skype and Google have chucked a large quantity of readies at Spanish tech startup Fon Technology SL, a kind of wi-fi Napster keen on revolutionary imagery (check out the design on their site) who have adopted the quasi-Bolivarian name “foneros” for those subscribing to their service.
This introduction is courtesy of The Mobile Weblog…
If you don’t already know FON, you may soon. Founded by Martin Varsavsky of Jazztel fame, FON is a movement to create shared wireless access networks, begun in Spain and now being exported worldwide, albeit one connection at a time. The basic idea is that users with Wi-Fi connections sign up and share their network access to others also belonging to the FON system, er, movement. A little piece of software makes it happen, but at the moment only if you have a Linksys wireless router.
It’s easy to see why Skype are interested - turning cities into massive wi-fi hotspots can only do great things for their VoIP business and make the possibility of VoIP-powered mobile phones a lot more realistic.
However, the company may face legal challenges from ISPs who are getting upset at people sharing their bandwidth.