The San Francisco Gate tells is that that
happy days are here again. Spanish techonology company FON is promoting a social Wi-Fi model that could provoke the fury of the technological establishment on a scale not seen since Napster and Kazaa burst onto the scene in the late 90's.
FON's idea is to build a global WiFi network on the same principles as music sharing networks such Napster or Kazaa - what FON calls user generated infrastructure. All users, called FONeros, that are willing to share their WiFi networks at home can also access other FON-user's networks for free when traveling. Non-sharing users and non-FONeros, also called Aliens, will be able to buy access for $3 per day.
Juergen Urbanski, the company's represenative in North American outlined the companies mission in an
AP article.
"(Wi-Fi) coverage is universal in big cites, but access is not," Urbanski said of how many of the wireless Internet links broadcasting from businesses, homes, hotels and cafes remain private and unavailable, even to users ready to pay for them.
Urbanski, a former director of marketing at data storage maker Network Appliance Inc., said FON is aiming to have 50,000 working hotspots worldwide by September, 150,000 by year-end and 1 million hotspots by the end of 2007.
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But FON could face legal battles with telephone and cable TV carriers who bar users from sharing Web access they supply, similar to how Hollywood sued and put the original Napster out of business for enabling millions to illegally share music.
While I ultimately fail to see how any how a ban on social routing could be enforced, I forsee that the almost inevitable rise of Fon is going to hasten discussion about what constitutes fair use in a system were unlimited usage has become the norm. And I don't think that the victory of the big telecoms is inevitable. Could the decline of established online infrastructure companies like AOL have been imagined in 1995?