Fon is offering you their latest dual-band WiFi router, the FON2601E. Corresponding to the ‘Draft 11ac’ (the new standard for Wireless LAN IEEE802.11ac), the FON2601E comes with a USB 2.0 port (setting), one Internet LAN port, one LAN port and supports for dual-band WiFi access point (2.4GHz – 300Mbps and 5GHz – 866Mbps). The FON2601E is available now for 4,800 Yen (about $47). [Product Page]
It may not be as convenient as, say, Three UK's attempt to abolish data roaming frustrations, but today AT&T has partnered with yet another WiFi hotspot provider to make sharing those vacation pictures with cubicle-bound chums that much easier. International hotspot outfit Fon and Ma Bell have inked a deal that opens their respective WiFi networks up to each other's customers, though jetsetters will need a device compatible with AT&T's WiFi International iOS and Android apps. That's not the only catch, either. Like with AT&T's other hotspot arrangements, patrons of the US carrier will already need a roaming data plan to take advantage of the free 1GB of WiFi per month -- a 300 or 800MB Global Add-on package, in this case. Well, like everyone says: there's no such thing as free international WiFi sharing agreement data.
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Everyone and their mother knows Skype as a call and chat messenger, but it would've been a completely different beast if its founders' original plans came to fruition."The initial idea was to develop a WiFi-sharing network, and then provide various 'telecom-like' services on top of that, such as TV and telephony," explained founding engineer Jaan Tallinn in a Reddit AMA.
Tallinn compared the project to Fon, but he and his co-founders hit a wall: they couldn't offer TV services because they were battling copyright lawsuits as developers of P2P file-sharing site Kazaa. The team also had trouble finding a decent VoIP product to attach to the service and wound up concocting their own technology instead. The new VoIP tech, which was supposed to be named Skyper until the team noticed Skyper.net was already taken, eventually became the focus of the service. It's an interesting look at the birth of the chat messenger we know today. Now if only we could figure out if the government has direct access to Skype's logs, we'd be set.
Filed under: Software
Via: GigaOM
Source: Reddit
Just when you were finally beginning to understand the difference between Openzone and Fon, British operator BT has decided to merge them into a single hotspot service called BT Wi-fi -- creating what it claims is the "world's largest wi-fi community." Access already comes free and unlimited with home and business broadband connections, so there's "no need to pay for 3G or a dongle" so long as you're in a relatively densely populated area. The re-branding should have little impact on how you use the service, except that the old network names will gradually be replaced, but then a bit of unification often has unexpected benefits.
BT unites Openzone and Fon as a single WiFi hotspot service in the UK originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jun 2012 05:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Normally, we associate Karma with religion, or if we're honest, luxury hybrid sedans. A company by the same name would rather you make that connection with WiMAX Internet service. Much like a 4G version of FON, subscribers to the Clearwire-rooted network are required to share their Internet link-ups with the public as a WiFi hotspot. As the name suggests, though, sharing the connection ideally pays back dividends through free access: for every guest who signs in on Facebook to get 100MB of free data through the hotspot, another 100MB goes towards the hotspot owner. If all goes well, the Karma user creates a virtuous circle (pun entirely intended) and pays little if anything for Internet access; while the WiMAX hotspot costs $69, the $14 per gigabyte rate only kicks in if the credit runs out. Trial runs are starting in New York City and might only hit 500 hotspots by the end of 2012, but the hope is to upturn the wider industry and make sure there's never a shortage of public WiFi.
Karma rewards WiMAX subscribers for sharing their 4G originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 14 Jun 2012 22:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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