I just sent off my order for a new FON router. Years ago, when FON just got started, I was an early adopter. And, I have to say, FON left a bitter taste in my mouth.
The premise of FON hasn’t really changed, though the terms of service have gotten better. You buy a router on the cheap, pre-loaded with FON’s custom firmware, and then you get to use other people’s FON-enabled connections while roaming. FON makes its money from selling Wi-Fi access to people who aren’t FON members.
It’s a great idea, sure to draw ire from those ISPs that clearly forbid the practice. FON of course is attempting to make theworld’s largest hotspot network, in order to sell the service to people who need an internet connection (and stumble upon the FON hotspot of a particular house/business). Shortly after launch, FON began cutting users in on the revenue… but, at the cost of free roaming. You had to chose if you wanted to make money from your hotspot, or be able to use other people’s FON routers elsewhere.
That’s changed now, you get to roam for free, and collect 50% of the hotspot sales from your router. The other thing that has changed, is FON’s router and firmware… they now both actually work. The first-gen FON firmware locked you out of your LAN… not good.
But, it hasn’t been a smooth ride so far. I couldn’t even order the equipment using Safari… had to start the whole order again in Firefox (Note to FON: Fix your online store so it doesn’t give customers an infinite loop).
Now, am I going to trust FON again with being my router? Heck no… it will be deployed downstream of my router.
Oh, and did I mention I live next to a school now? It will be interested to see if there’s an uptick in usage, from soccer moms and dads checking their email, while waiting to pick up their kids from school. Still, my expectations aren’t that high… I won’t be surprised if nobody uses it at all. But, for $50 (including the extra-range antenna), it’s a nice experiment in merging the worlds of 4G and traditional data networks.
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So why would you waste time jumping on the insecure FON bandwagon when the secure Tomizone bandwagon is similar but has been doing this “new” model for over two years – with D-Link hardware too! Soccer Moms might find it easier to use than FON
Primarily because FON is much more recognized in the United States. Tomizone is much more used in countries like New Zealand. However, I wouldn’t call FON insecure. They auto-update their devices, just like any good Wi-Fi network… and are using OpenWRT, which has more than proven itself.
When I said that I “wouldn’t trust” FON with being my primary router, I was referring to my usage needs. I need an enterprise-grade router at home to handle my traffic. Also, I want to have full control over my own router.
My advice to Tomizone would be to establish business partners in the United States that can better evangelize the platform. After all, FON has Google on their side… Tomizone doesn’t even have a U.S. retail partner.