The Fonera name doesn’t really mean much here in the U S of A, but it’s a little more popular in Europe. (I know I occasionally ran into Fonera Wi-Fi networks in Barcelona last year, and I had never seen one in Manhattan or Queens in New York.) In any event, Fon has, indeed, released the Fonera 2n router here in the U.S.. The big thing is that it works with 802.11n. I guess that’s what the “n” is for.
As the fun little pic shows, the router has built-in clients for a couple of popular Web sites, like YouTube and Facebook. That means if you have the router connected to a netbook, your netbook could be totally turned off and you’d still be able to upload content to YouTube and Facebook. Why you’d need to do that, I don’t know.
What the heck is Fonera, you ask? It’s a company that’ll sell you a router on the cheap—this new one costs $99—on the condition that you share your Internet connection with other Fonera users, thus building a mini Fonera Internet. Sorta. You know what I mean. Again, I haven’t seen too many of these here in the U.S., but, for example, I’ve never been to tech-crazy San Francisco in my life. Maybe it’s big out there?
Since when is 99 bucks cheap for a router?
“The big thing is that it works with 802.11n. I guess that’s what the “n” is for.” What else could the N stand for?
New
Nebulous
Nerf
Nappy
Noteworthy…
never underestimate the stupidity that can exist in a corporation
I don’t understand what the point of this thing is…
In germany a high court decision ruled out by OLG Cologne declared FON as “a parasitic business model”. FON has closed his german office now….
i hate to inform you guys but the high tech state of things in SF are pretty horrid to say the least. we can chose from AT&T’s terribly slow, and cheap workarounds, or comcast. anybody else is pretty weak or dangerous to get. AT&T is going fiber to the NODE, which is total ass. and they haven’t even really deployed that yet. so they offer 6megs down, 600k up. comcast is slowly rolling out docsis 3.0 for huge bucks. all the wireless in town has dead spots. and wifi hotspots are few, at least free unbridled. so while this town seems to be starfleet academy. it doesn’t hold a candle to philadelphia, a true high tech hot spot for web choices and speeds. infrastructurally speaking.
I have the basic Fon router for WiFi at home, and that model is damn cheap. I also get to be part of the communal Fon network, meaning in theory that I get to use other Fon users’ wifi for free if I happen to be nearby. In practice, where I live (just outside Tokyo) and where I work (in Tokyo), the coverage is still pretty sparse. It’s all about building critical mass, and we’re not there yet. I could’ve decided, hell, the coverage is so poor there’s nothing in it for me, but instead I figured it would be more fun to do my bit to help build out the network, and get a cheap home WiFi setup at the same time. So if you’re a Fonero and you’re in the Miyoshi area, feel free to loiter outside my house and enjoy the free WiFi.