> Sure wish I knew how the fark they intend on making money.. Well, a wireless router that seems to be retailing for about $65. That means that it probably costs about $20-30 wholesale, if that. I notice their original charge was $25., so let's say that is the base cost of the unit. I did not see if they charge you for "shipping and handling", the normal way that people make money off low-cost items.
I noticed that if you do not register your $5. router in the first thirty days, they charge you for the rest of the router, which still has their code in it. And I also notice that future updates to the router will have code that will allow their servers to see if you have turned off the router, or replaced their code with your code. I imagine that if your router is off too much or you change the code you will turn from a "Linus" into a "Bill", and may even be charged for the rest of the router cost. Once the access point is set up, there is no cost to FON.com for this service (no electricity, no ISP connection), just some servers that handle the purchases, etc. Sure, there will be a lot of "Linuses", but there will be a lot of "Bills" and "Aliens" too, who will pay for the access. 3 Eros (about 4 dollars) a day for the "service" of which half goes to FON.com. I am sure that a lot of "Bills" will just leave the money in the account for a while. That also builds up interest. Now this whole idea tickles the fancy of the industry, sounds good, etc. and will generate lots of free publicity for them. Probably saving them lots of money in advertising, and getting them lots of access points. So eventually they will have a lot of people using these access points. Probably half of them will be "Bills" or "Alians", and in heavy districts it could be two or three people using the same access point each day. $2. per day per access point builds up. I would not be a "Bill", since there would be few people buying the access point through me....I live too far out in the country, with no really close neighbors. I could be a "Linus", but it is probably too much trouble. I already have an "open" access point at my house, if anyone cares to use it, and I have given away 802.11GL routers to friends in South America who need them, so doing the $5. router with this tie-in is not for me. When I travel I look for hotels that offer free broadband anyway. Maybe some airports might have this, but I think they would go with the "higher priced spread", since they have you trapped. So I might be an "Alien", looking for the cheapest access point around (assuming I can not find a free one) and if I had to pay $4. for an Internet connection per day, I would not fall over. On the other hand, it is only as good as the ISP connection the person has (DSL, Cable), and with their promise that the router owner will be able to throttle the "free" usage in the future, your mileage may vary. But with the news of this effort, FON.com is one place I might look. :-} A risk, a gamble, but a cute one, and one that in the future might also allow advertising to the "Linuses", "Bills" and "Aliens" as they sign up. md -- Jon "maddog" Hall Executive Director Linux International(R) email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 80 Amherst St. Voice: +1.603.672.4557 Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A. WWW: http://www.li.org Board Member: Uniforum Association Board Member Emeritus: USENIX Association (2000-2006) (R)Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several countries. (R)Linux International is a registered trademark in the USA used pursuant to a license from Linux Mark Institute, authorized licensor of Linus Torvalds, owner of the Linux trademark on a worldwide basis (R)UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group in the USA and other countries. _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list gnhlug-discuss@mail.gnhlug.org http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
