Wi-Fi made simple

What is it? When did it begin?
What does it enable you to do that you couldn’t before?
Wi-Fi is a form of wireless internet connection and a brand owned by the Wi-Fi Alliance since 1997. Routers incorporating a DSL or cable modem are often used in the home to create a Wi-Fi hotspot, providing internet access to all devices connected wirelessly to them, including PCs, mobile phones and PDAs. Hotspots can cover an area as small as a single room, or many square miles through overlapping access points. The attraction of Wi-Fi is that it enables internet on the move – you can do everything you would be able to do using a fixed internet connection, but you don’t have to be at your desk.

How much does it currently cost?
How extensively can you get it?
Excluding FON, Wi-Fi is available in more than 250,000 public hotspots and tens of millions of homes and corporate and university campuses worldwide. A conventional router can cost as little as $60, and the monthly charge for a broadband connection as little as $20.

What is the difference between Wi-Fi and WiMAX?
WiMAX is an emerging technology that can allow operators to deliver a 40 Mbps connection over an area 3-10 km wide. That may sound impressive, but the investment has to be paid for by somebody – most likely the end customer. FON is designed to be free or affordable so that it can stand the test of time, even against new technologies with more advanced specifications.

If FON is for free, where will its money come from?
Non-subscribers pay to use the hotspots. They can enjoy free surfing time in return for viewing advertisements – another source of revenue for FON. Major broadband providers could integrate the company’s software into their routers, bringing free Wi-Fi to a massive new audience. The likes of T-Mobile and Swisscom could also pay FON for the lease of its networks.

Who are the competitors?
Established hotspot providers like T-Mobile and Swisscom, operating at hotels and cafés, have enjoyed a virtual monopoly, splitting their income with the venue. FON is to them what Linux is to Microsoft. Being free or very cheap to use, it could effectively take the bottom out the market, forcing the industry as a whole to rethink its pricing.

Martin Varsavsky
Age 47
Nationality Argentine/US/Spanish

Career highs
Aged 24, Varsavsky borrowed $12m to launch the NY Loft Movement. In 1986 he launched Canadian company Medicorp Sciences, an early pioneer of AIDS testing. Having made his first million by 1987, he moved into telecoms with Viatel in 1990, listing the company in 1994 and offloading his shares in 1998. In 1997 he founded Jazztel Telecommunications, and in 1999 he created Ya.com Internet Factory, which was sold in 2000 to Deutsche Telekom’s T-Online International.

Family
Four children with wife Waya Quiviga.

Out of the office
Varsavsky takes a sabbatical whenever he sells a company. He has 11 homes, including in the Hamptons in New York, and enjoys mountain biking, sailing, piloting and cooking. The Varsavsky Foundation promotes Educar (Argentina) and EducarChile (Chile), aiming to democratise and modernise the educational systems in both countries. Varsavsky is also founder and president of the Safe Democracy Foundation, created to promote fair, transparent and safe democracies. For nearly 10 years Varsavsky has taught entrepreneurship courses at Spain’s Instituto de Empresa Business School.

La Fonera
La Fonera is the name given to FON’s social router, which lies at the heart of FON’s whole business model. It measures just 72mm x 97mm x 22mm. Its “social” element – that is, the fact that other people can surf on your broadband connection – is kicking up a storm of interest in cyberspace, as these two comments suggest:

“[La Fonera] is a social router in the sense that it is both a Wi-Fi router and a social platform. Everyone talks about Web 2.0 websites. FON is starting the first Web 2.0 gadgets, and there will be many.

"I believe that most gadgets that we now know will go social. iPods will go social, gaming consoles will go social, digital cameras will go social.” – US technology reviewer

“I do have safety concerns and therefore moved my Fonera virtually into a lake near Madrid.” – Spain-based FON user

PICTURES BY RICHARD ANSETT