oontiveros

From Forbes.com, a snippet below...

"Entrepreneurs
Stealing Starbucks' WiFi Customers
Mary Crane, 02.26.07, 6:00 AM ET


Just because you pay a premium for Starbucks coffee doesn't mean you have to pay a premium to surf the Web at Starbucks cafes.

FON, a community WiFi provider headquartered in Madrid, Spain, is offering wireless Internet access to Starbucks' latte-sipping surfers for just $2 a day--versus the $10 users pay to sign onto the 5,100 T-Mobile hotspots at U.S. Starbucks .

Just how does FON plan to steal away Starbucks Internet users? By offering FON wireless routers, also known as "La Foneras," free to anyone who lives above or next to a Starbucks. The routers, which usually cost $40, split an Internet broadband connection into two wireless signals--one for personal Internet use and the second for public use, which can be accessed by anyone within range for $2 per day. The routers' owners get to pocket half of the sign-on fee, and FON takes home the rest.

Starbucks refused to comment directly on the FONbucks campaign, but a Starbucks spokesperson said any increase in the number of WiFi hotspots is "a good thing." T-Mobile also declined to comment on the program."


I agree with Starbucks...cheaper WiFi should bring more people in. I spent over $1500 last year on hotel internet access...not fun.

BLI-Flyer

If you spend $1,500/year on hotel Internet access, maybe you should look at a Broadband data card like Verizon sells. For $59.95 a month, you'll come out ahead. I just got one and the speed is pretty good, at least as fast as some of the DSL connections I've been getting in hotels.

Edited to note that you're outside the US so maybe a Verizon Broadband card won't be as much use to you as it is to me. My oops.

SmilingBoy

Please note the OP's location: "Live in Jakarta, office in Hong Kong & work in South India. Transit SIN & BKK bi-monthly"

If I can get worldwide 3G internet access for $60 a month, I'm in.

SmilingBoy.

ScottC

This is just a marketing stunt, I bet that most people that are regular users of WiFi at Charbucks are on one of the T-mobile unlimited plans. I get unlimited WiFi with them included in my data plan, effectively only costing me $10 a month.

Who on earthy pays $10 to access one of these hotspots? I sure as heck don't know anyone.

oontiveros

Yea I am screwed when it comes to broadband access on my laptop.

I also use Hong Kong Vodaphone's 3G/HSDPA Mobile Connect card but thats only good for HKG in terms of pricing. It is soooo expensive roaming as it charges per kb.

My blackberry has been great (on the US T-Mobile $40 per month unlimited int'l roaming plan) but when one has to work with docs, etc, it's not a solution.

oontiveros

But don't you think people will pay $2 for access? for a whole day? Assuming you only use it for travelling, its a good deal. I know I would appreciate it.

ScottC

There is no way in hell I would ever consider doing anything serious on a connection being offered by a stranger, through their residential internet connection.

WiFi is insecure enough without having to worry about some jerk snooping on my data.

I'm sure it'll be great to play WoW on, but anything other than that is just a bad idea on a fon connection.

ScottC

It's only $59.95 a month if you have a qualifying voice plan with Verizon.

If you travel a lot then you are better off with a Cingular plan anyway since they run on HSPDA/EDGE/GPRS.

alanw

I signed up for La Fonera a couple weeks ago and the router showed up at my door last night. It's a pretty sweet deal. You share a percentage of your bandwidth over Wifi, and you get free access at every other Fonera access point in the world. If someone pays, you get a piece of that as well.

They have 7000 APs, including vastly more in Europe than anyone else from what I can see.

cblaisd

Sounds intriguing....

How would you assess ScottC's concerns, though?

gof

For those of you who travel a lot, consider the iPass service (www.ipass.com). My work started using them late last year and it's nice to have a one-stop subscription. I think they offer individual/small business plans as well.

remyontheroad

I'm also curious about the reverse. So you are letting a bunch of strangers onto your DSL connection.

Do they give you any assurances that the wall between the two realms is secure?

rufflesinc

that is what VPNs are for. there was a thread on this forum about setting on up on your home machine (usually linux i think) that routes encrypted data from your laptop to the wifi to your home computer then the final destination.

ScottC

Your other main concern is that no US based ISP allows you to openly share your connection. I know I wouldn't feel safe letting people do whatever they want over my cable connection, for all I know some perv is reading a kiddie porn website. It'll be a hard case to prove in court that it was your IP doing the browsing, but it was in fact a stranger sitting in a Starbucks that did the actual crime...

remyontheroad

Well. sure, I suppose, but are they offering VPN enabled routers?

I doubt that they are asking their "partners" to bother with that...

Are they?