Why municipal wireless networks are NOT failing...

There has been a lot of publicity during the last 12 months on the subject of municipal wifi networks failing or not even getting of the ground. This has lead to a widespread belief that these types of networks are unworkable, overpriced and doomed to fail. Nothing is further from the truth.
The majority of networks that failed, failed because of either an in-ability to understand the technology used (in regards to performance, signal propagation, interference etc.), a lousy business model (unrealistic revenue forecasts, over reliance on third party content etc.) or a combination of both.
The lack of understanding of the technology quite often lead to the network either using not enough wireless nodes resulting in bad coverage, low throughput, high latency and other performance problems or to too many wireless nodes causing signal interference, "node hopping" etc. also resulting on performance problems. All this results in a dissatisfied user which in turn leads to bad publicity, falling revenue and investors losing confidence.
Lousy business models more often than not contained unrealistic user numbers and inflated revenue forecasts. Combine the two and you have a recipe for disaster.
Another contributor to these disasters is the fact that all these projects were put out to tender. The tender process more often than not leads to the opposite of it's goal. Instead of the best value supplier getting the deal it is quite often only the "big boys" that get a look in and more often than not this leads to less innovative and lower value (but higher costs) hardware being deployed.
I wont type up a list of failed networks but I am sure that Google will help you out if you want to find out more.
In spite of all the bad publicity that municipal wifi networks have been receiving in the printed and digital media stories are now emerging of networks that do seem to work.
Oklahoma City has recently completed what it claims to be the world’s largest city-owned municipal WiFi mesh network. The network covers 555 square miles with 95 percent coverage in urban areas and 95 percent coverage on main roads. Now that is an awfully big network! Before you all move to Oklahoma there is one "bad point": the city-wide network will be used only for public safety and municipal applications. It is not open to the public....
Apparently the network costs $5 million to build. For this they got 1,200 fixed WiFi nodes and 850 mobile WiFi nodes (in police cars and fire trucks) provided by Tropos Networks. Now that is an awful lot of money And while Tropos' products are certainly very good I am certain that this could have been completed on a lower budget.
I do however find it very interesting that they have deployed mobile nodes. This certainly makes sense but I do not think that this has ever been deployed on this scale.

Their decision to not make access to this network available for the public follows an opinion that I have had for some time; that "joe public" does not need coverage blanket wifi coverage. What he/she needs though is wifi access in areas where it is convenient to use. A city can provide wifi access in parks, libraries, public transport hubs in pedestrian areas etc. Areas with high traffic flow and little or no static users do not need wifi coverage. So you can create a municipal wifi network with blanket coverage that will only be used for public safety and municipal applications and use this network as a backbone to creating certain public wifi zones. You can even let these wifi zones be operated by private companies. The availability of power-points to recharge a "tired" laptop in these areas would also be a welcome plus...

Things you didn;t know about the Clearwire and Sprint "deal"...

The sun is shining today and i'm feeling lazy so I am just going to shamelessly quote from this post on MuniWireless.com.


"1) The new Clearwire network will use the “mobile” version of WiMax.
There seems to be a lot of confusion around this point, mainly because the “old” Clearwire had been using a so-called “fixed” version of the wireless broadband technology in the networks it’s been building since 2004. The new networks (including those inherited from Sprint’s Xohm operations) will use equipment based on the newer, mobile standard, which supports cellular-like roaming. Clearwire had previously said it was upgrading its networks to Mobile WiMax anyway, so this is not a big change. But when the mobile gear goes live, it will offer a much different experience than previous WiMax deployments.

2) Despite its stated strategic direction toward the long-term evolution (LTE) 4G cellular technology, AT&T currently runs several commercial WiMax networks in the U.S., in Nevada, Alaska and other locations.
Right now there doesn’t seem to be too much to look into here, except for the fact that AT&T may be hedging its bets by keeping its toes wet in matters WiMax. This may be more important in the future, when WiMax standards at the 700 MHz level emerge.

3) There is more bandwidth currently available at WiMax’s main frequency than at the much-heralded 700 MHz band.
This point is a hard one to make, since most people talk about the characteristics of specific spectrum slices, like the ability of 700 MHz signals to penetrate building walls. But when it comes to being able to offer more bandwidth to more folks, the amount of available spectrum may matter more — and right now, there is about 198 MHz available at WiMax’s 2.5 GHz band, as opposed to 60 MHz that is being freed up at 700 MHz. So WiMax may be better able to scale to support more users.

4) WiMax mobile devices are already under development, and should be ready about the same time the Clearwire network launches.
There’s a bit of a trust factor involved here, but we are going on the research we did with Sprint, who said that they had more devices in their labs for testing than they had time to certify. And the debut of Nokia’s WiMax tablet at CTIA in April seems to show that device manufacturers are ahead of the curve here.

5) The new Clearwire will offer day-pass and casual-use billing, which is a departure from the past long-term contracts.
Because Clearwire doesn’t have to subsidize the costs of all the expected WiMax-enabled devices, it can offer ad hoc contracts without the worry or expense of paying for end-user equipment. While it may take a while for Wall Street to wrap its mind around “occasional ARPU,” the incremental adds should bolster, not detract from, a provider’s bottom line."

These are all very interesting insights into the US Wimax market. Seeing that Google, Comcast, Intel and Time Warner Cable are the main investors in this deal it could mean that their collective push will finally bring Wimax into play as a real consumer technology. Calculating the usual delay of in these type of developments hitting Europe we could look at similar developments here in 2010 (-ish)...

More about wifi on Irish rail..

I blogged about getting WiFi on Irish trains some time ago.
Since this blogpost it has become clear to me how much this type of service is in demand. I have spoken or been approached by several dozen people who agreed with the sentiment expressed in the blogpost. These people ranged from entrepreneurs and students to civil servants. All these people had one thing the in common: they were all willing to either pay more for a ticket or to use the train service more if WiFi internet access was available.
I was also approached by John Kennedy from Silicon republic who wrote on the subject.
Subsequently I was approached last Wednesday (May 21st) By Radio station Today FM who wanted to record a discussion between Barry Kelly (spokesperson for Irish rail) and myself for their "The Last Word" show.
I am not going to summarize the discussion as it has not yet been broadcast but what I can "reveal" is that Barry Kelly indicated that Irish Rails' main reason for not having WiFi on trains yet was that there was significant price-tag attached to this and that they had yet to see an proposal that showed a revenue benefit for them. When I then repeated my earlier offering of installing a public WiFi service on all Irish Trains at NO COST to Irish Rail Barry Kelly just repeated his previous statement. I then had to come straight out and ask him, seeing that I had just blown his argument out of the water, if he would at least meet me in order to discuss my proposal. he said he would but I have still not heard anything. I might just give them a call.

On another note; WiFi on trains continues to be a hot topic across the globe.Thalys launched their service around the same time as my previous blogpost.
TrainComms 2008 the world largest conference on Trains and communications is taking place in London on the 11th & 12th of June. WiFi aboard trains is their main theme for the conference.

There is also a good blog on Blog4IT on wifi on trains. Some quotes from the article:
"Major European, US and Asian operators are rapidly following the UK’s lead and introducing on-board, high-speed wireless Internet connections for their passengers."

"As Graham Wilde, CEO of BWCS, put it, “This year there has been an unprecedented number of new services and trials launched. From the West Coast of America, to India and Australia, we are seeing more interest than ever in these on-board WiFi systems.” He went on “train companies are fired up by a heady combination of introducing cost-saving applications for their own operations and adding new, income-generating, entertainment services for their passengers.”

The full article can be read here..

I think that it's time to put more pressure on Irish rail to provide this service. It will lead to increased ticket sales (especially for the premium rate ticket), will most likely also lead to an increased spend per traveler, it opens up a number of new avenues for information dissemination, improves communication etc.
It will also get people to get out of their car and into the train which in turn will lead to less congested roads and lower CO2 emissions.
Combine that with the fact that because of our offer it would not require any investment in infra-structure for Irish Rail and I really cannot see how they can refuse any longer. Can you?

Poll: WiFi on Irish Rail..

Train-Fi.......

There has been an ongoing discussion within the Irish blogger community recently on the subject of public wifi internet access on trains.
There is a growing demand for this type of service and the provision of it will certainly get more bums on train seats and off car seats. This in turn would lead to lower car usage resulting in lower carbon emisions, surely something that the government should support? I for one would be inclined to take the train rather than drive if it meant that I could sit and work while traveling.
Irish Rail doesn't think that this is a viable option and states the following in it's FAQ:

"Iarnród Éireann (IÉ) feels that it wouldn’t be in the public or the
company’s best interest to install the current wireless technologies on
its fleet for customer use due to the limited lifespan of said
technologies. Anything we install now is likely to be completely
redundant within five years.

We feel customers would be better supported by obtaining their own
wireless solutions, such as those provided by the mobile providers (3G
and GPRS/EDGE ). 

IÉ is hoping that near-future new technologies such as WiMax and
other long range wireless tech will make the idea of onboard solutions
redundant.  We will continue to monitor the speed of advance of such
technologies and if we deem that change is not occurring quickly enough
we may reconsider the situation."

Now this is clearly a cop-out. Not installing a service because it "is likely to be completely redundant within five years"? Nonsense, for one the market share of wifi-client devices is still growing year on year. These devices will still be around in five years time and people will still be using them.WiFi is still the most convenient and costs effective solution for mobile internet access and it will stay that way for a good while to come. Also not providing a service because it might need to be replaced by something else in five years time just doesn't make sense. The low cost of providing wifi access in trains puts it on par with such things as keeping the toilets clean. Now surely they will not stop cleaning the toilets just because it might have to be done again tomorrow?
Passing the buck to 3G and GPRS/EDGE services also shows to indicate that no reserach has been done to support this statement. Conor O'Neill recently documented the huge gaps in coverage for these services. Hoping for Wimax to solve the problem is like kneeling down and praying in front of an oncoming tsunami. It might make you feel better but it won't change reality. While Wimax is a very "good technology" it is not as good as the media has repeatedly hyped it up to be and it is still far, far away from becoming a consumer end technology. When Wimax networks would become more common in Ireland it would be a perfect backhaul medium for local WiFi networks in trains.

It is not like this hasn't been done before. Irish Rail clearly has not looked beyond the Irish sea when considering offering public WiFi access. This article in the International Herald Tribune gives a good overview of what has been happening in this field:

"Train operators across Britain and the Continent have been
accelerating the rollout of onboard Wi-Fi systems, allowing travelers
to prepare for meetings, download video clips or catch up on their
e-mail - sometimes while zipping through the countryside at 300
kilometers, or 190 miles, an hour.

While some railway companies see Wi-Fi as a new source of revenue
for themselves or for the technology companies that run the systems for
them, others see it as a service or marketing perk.

"It's a key tool that we use to compete with the airlines," said
John Gelson, spokesman for National Express East Coast, a British train
operator that has one of the largest on-the-go Wi-Fi systems, in 43
trains that ply a 950-kilometer route between London and Inverness,
Scotland, via Edinburgh."

There you go; in one fell statement. People want it, people will use it and it IS possible. Also it will increase the number of people using the train and these are also quite often the people purchasing first-class or premium price tickets. All this will lead to increased revenue for the Rail operator.
5 minutes of research shows that the following public transport operators are offering public WiFi access:

• Isle of Wight Ferries
• Some Stagecoach
  services in Scotland
  
• Certain bus routes in Wales
  
• Scottish
  Citylink routes
  
• Glasgow flyer shuttles
  
• Certian National Express
  routes in the UK
  
• Some trains & buses in Helsinki
  
• GNER
  trains across the UK
• National Express East Coast (UK)
• Deutsche Bahn (Germany)
• Thalys, which runs high-speed trains linking Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne
• SNCF (France)
• Heathrow Express
• Amtrak

All of these operators have successfully deployed public WiFi using a variety of backhaul methods (3G, satellite, wimax etc.).
The user demand is clearly illustrated by these comments on Twitter. People want it and if it's not available they are clearly annoyed. The increased availability of WiFi enabled phones, Internet laptops and small notebooks as well as the ever growing share of user generated Internet content only supports the argument.
Pratically it is no great feat to install WiFi networks on trains. The main issue is the backhaul connectivity and even for that there are a number of solutions. A combination of these through redundancy combined with content caching should overcome all but the most obscure of problems. Signal propagation within the train is also no big issue even in spite of the large amounts of metal surfaces causing interference. This can be overcome by a properly carried out site survey, a sufficient number of WiFi AP's/hotspots and proper radio-planning.

Another issue to consider is that this WiFi network, through the use of a captive portal solution, can be used for more than providing "plain vanilla" Internet access. The portal can be used to provide public service information, updates on travel times and delays, connecting trains (and other modes of public transport) destinations etc. It can also be used to offer VOIP services and as a means of communication for Irish Rail staff.

All this does not have to come at a huge cost to Irish Rail; I have stated before that (pending certain conditions) that AirAppz is offering to install a WiFi service in most, if not all trains throughout Ireland at NO COST to Irish Rail. The ball is in Irish Rails' court now....     

Blogged with Flock

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part four.....

Time for another post on this subject as the yes-voters seemed to have stepped up their campaign and are now resorting to smear-campaigning.
Rather than use my own arguments I will use this post to air the views of another opponent of the Lisbon treaty.
Former Labour MP Tony Benn recently sent a open letter to every Westminster MP highlighting urgent issues relating to the Lisbon treaty.
Following is the content of the letter:

Dear Member of Parliament,I am writing to ask you to make it possible for me - and every elector in Britain - to vote on the Lisbon Treaty in a referendum. For the Lisbon Treaty transfers important powers which belong to us, to others in Europe we do not elect, cannot remove, and who therefore do not have to listen to us in the way that MPs listen to their constituents.

Britain must work closely with its European neighbours, but if this cooperation is to succeed, the arrangements must be democratically approved by all the people of Europe.

There is a case for a fully federal Europe. But surely those who take that view should, as democrats, want to win a majority for it in a referendum. That is why this decision must be made by the British people as a whole, because it will affect us all irrevocably and the Lisbon Treaty can never be amended or repealed by any future government that we elect.

Moreover, if three-line whips are imposed, telling any MPs how they must vote, it could not then even be argued that parliament had decided the matter freely. For all these reasons I hope you yourself will feel able to vote for a referendum, thus safeguarding the rights of your electors.

Tony Benn

Interesting: EU approves use of public funds for broadband in Scotland.

Read on MuniWireless:
The European Commission has allowed Scotland to use £3.4 million (€4.32 million) in public funds to bring broadband to remote areas of Scotland. EU state aid rules place restrictions on member states using public funds to subsidize the creation of broadband infrastructure or services that compete with private enterprise. However, in this case, the Commission concluded that public funding is necessary to bring broadband to users in remote areas of Scotland. Private service providers will have non-discriminatory access to the wholesale services if they decide to serve those remote areas.

I wonder if this will set a precedent that will break the EU's reluctance to approve this type of investments so far. Maybe Dublin's councillors should pay attention..

Using Twitter as a customer support tool.

Most of you will be aware of Twitter, it's an SMS driven micro-blogging tool.
Messages are sent to a central number and are then displayed on the Twitter website. You can subscribe to other people's tweets, send direct messages, receive updates to your mobile, import your tweets into your blog etc.
It's a great way to throws short (140 character) messages into the public domain and start discussions or exchanges.
Recently I used Twitter for another purpose; we were providing public WiFi access at the IWTC conference in Dublin.
Part of the agreement was that we would also support the network during the conference.
Rather than permanently place someone on-site I decided to use a new approach to providing support. I knew that there would be a good few "twitterers" at the conference so I decided to communicate with them via Twitter to keep track of the networks performance and to correct any issues.
On one of the days we were alerted that the connectivity had dropped but very little other detail. I quickly put a message out on twitter seeing who at the conference was using the wifi access and in what areas. It was quickly determined that the issue was in the bar area. I logged into the network remotely, rebooted the wireless access point in question and put another message on twitter to see if the problem was solved. I had a response within a minute letting me know that everything was back up and running.
All this took less than 10 minutes and was done during my lunch from the kitchen table in my house!
It really shows the power of a medium like Twitter.

Interesting (but not surprising) iPhone usage stats.

Courtesy of iSuppli.

I wonder is it's user or application driven....

Enterprise Ireland organises Pre-HPSU Information workshops

Good news for budding entrepreneurs:
Enterprise Ireland has organised a number of workshop for people that are feeling the itch to start their own business. The workshops are primarily targeted at potential HPSU's.
"We will be running a series of short duration workshops on Entrepreneurship during May throughout the Mid-West Region to promote the notion of entrepreneurship as a career move/option. The workshops will be run over 2 consecutive evenings in Ennis, Nenagh and Tralee.

The workshop for North Tipperary will take place on the 21st/22nd May in the Abbey Court Hotel, Nenagh from 7-9.30pm.

The workshops are aimed at individuals/graduates with a business idea which has the potential to be scaled significantly within 3years and be export driven. Following on from the workshops, individuals may have the opportunity to progress to either a more in-depth six week Enterprise Start programmes, a 12month Enterprise Platform programme and/or engage with an EI development advisor on an individual basis with a view to developing a full business plan.

On the first evening of each workshop we plan to give participants an overview of the business development process with a specific focus on the market for the product/service, defining the actual value proposition, conducting market research, market development etc. This will be followed by a case study from a local entrepreneur (Templemore man Jimmy Martin, www.AMCS.ie for the Nenagh event) who will outline his experience of setting up a high growth business. On the second night we will cover the funding supports available via EI and VC’s and we will also have an input from an entrepreneur on their experience of raising finance, funding the start-up etc. We are currently getting promotional material printed and will be placing ads in local newspapers and radio in advance of each event. I will send the brochures to you as soon as I get them, any help you could give in terms of promoting the event to any of your clients would be great and they would be most welcome to attend."

For more details contact:
Catherine Hogan
Senior Regional Development Executive
Enterprise Ireland
catherine.hogan-at-enterprise-ireland.com

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part three...

Fresh of the press:
"Only 5% understand Lisbon Treaty"
Research carried out by the Referendum Commission showed that just 5% of voters understand what the Lisbon Treaty is about.

A sample of voters were asked earlier this month how well they understood the treaty.
62% of respondents said they did not understand it all.
18% said they did not understand it particularly well.
15% said they understood it to some extent.
Responding to questions from reporters, Chairman of the Referendum Commission, Mr Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill, said they would not be drawn into any of the current arguments, as their role is to give a neutral explanation of what is in the treaty.
However, he said their interpretation of the taxation issue is that Ireland's veto remains unchanged.
He acknowledged that the treaty 'was not exactly holiday reading', however he said it was no more complicated than the Finance Bill published every year.
The commission confirmed the poll will take place on 12 June.
The commission is currently printing a 14-page explanation of the treaty which will be sent to every voting household in the coming weeks.

Why the Lisbon treaty needs to get the boot; part two...

Following on from my previous post on this here's another reason why the Lisbon Treaty deserves a resounding "NO".
The "Lisbon Treaty Referendum website" outlines one of the changes to the way Europe would be governed if the treaty is ratified as following: "At present, each Member State nominates one member of the Commission. A new Commission will be appointed in 2009 for a five year term with one member from each Member State.

If the Treaty comes into force then two-thirds of the Member States will nominate a Commissioner in 2014. There are 27 Member States at present. So, if the number of Member States remains the same, there will be 18 Commissioners in the period 2014 – 2019.

The right to nominate a Commissioner will rotate among the Member States on an equal basis. This means that each Member State will nominate a member of the Commission for two out of every three Commissions (that is, 10 of every 15 year cycle). The precise details of how this will operate in practice have yet to be decided. One Commissioner will hold the position of the newly created High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy."

So let me get this right; voting yes for the Lisbon Treaty will result in 9 of the 27 member states having no representation on the European council at any given time? Hardly democratic is it now? Lets put this in perspective: If Ireland was governed like this it would mean that 33% of elected TD's would not have a seat in the Dail....
Also the inclusion of the following sentence hardly instills faith: "The precise details of how this will operate in practice have yet to be decided." So you can vote yes, but we are suitably vague on specifics so that we can fill in the blanks in whatever way suits us and still insist that you voted yes for it.
You would expect that for something this important they would have gone through the trouble of working out ALL the details before putting it to a vote.
It again proves my point that even the bean-counters that put this treaty together do not understand the full contents and implications of it. Either that or they are being suitably vague in an attempt to sucker us all into granting them more legislative powers without any restrictions or guidelines on how to apply these powers.
More to follow....

Geartip: Gomadic Windshield (car) mount for HTC Touch..

I've been using PDA & phone based Sat-Nav devices since somewhere around 2002. In order to be able to view the device safely while driving I have used a long series of mounts and cradles. Dash-mount, windshield mount, vent mount, active holder, passive holder, you name it. All have managed at some point in time to come unstuck resulting in the PDA dropping into my lap (or worse into the footwell) while driving.
No more!
Some months ago I bought a Gomadic windshield mounted holder for my HTC Touch. I ordered it from the US for the very affordable price of $24.95. Peanuts at the current exchange rate. The device arrived in the post less than two weeks later and it has been in use ever since.
It attaches to the windshield using a suction cup, but this one has a screw attachment at the rear allowing you to tighten the hold on the windshield.
It has a long flexible neck that lets you "aim" the device in any direction that you would want to.
The device has so far failed to fall off the windshield in spite of the bumpy Irish roads. I have used it with the HTC Touch but it also holds a Cubic Telecom Pirelli phone or a clunky Nokia N95 in a tight grip.
In short I can strongly recommend this holder to anybody looking for a high quality, affordable holder for their PDA or phone!

A big thank you...

My work brings me in contact with all kinds of people on a day to day basis. Every now and then one of these people that I meet distinguishes themselves by the going out of their way to help me. Seeing that I have met quite a few of these people over the last few months I would like to say a public "thank you" by means of this blog.

- Joe Drumgoole: Joe was generous enough to refer a business acquaintance to me recently. This person was in dire need for someone that could provide (working) wifi access at a big technology conference in Dublin. On top of this, when we provided a perfect service but the client refused to settle their invoice, Joe went out of his way to mediate on our behalf. We still haven't received payment but I Joe's effort was "beyond the call of duty" and he deserves a big thank you! I want to make clear that the client's behaviour should not reflect badly on Joe as he can not be held responsible for someone else's actions.
- Brendan Lally: Brendan has assisted me greatly with advise and research for my current venture. He is a goldmine of information and has proven to be the perfect person to bounce ideas of. His experience and knowledge enables him to have a very down to earth and no-nonsense view of the sometimes much hyped IT business. Enterprise Ireland could really uses someone with Brendan's knowledge and experience to assists Irish companies wanting to enter the US market.
- Alex Leonard: When Alex heard about the Open Coffee Club BBQ he promptly volunteered his skills and time to design the OCC BBQ website. Alex designed a top-class website in no time. On top of that he has proven himself to be a very likeable and easy-going person. I can strongly recommend him to anybody looking for a web designer.
- Pat Phelan: What can I say? Pat is just an all-round great guy who is always ready to help a fellow entrepreneur.

Russia requires registration of all wifi devices.

According to this post om "The Other Russia" new legislation proposed in Russia requires all wifi devices have to be registered. And that really means ALL devices apparently:
"Vladimir Karpov, the deputy director of the agency’s communications monitoring division, told the newspaper that wireless internet users must obtain permission to use the radio frequency involved in Wi-Fi transmitting, and must register any electronics that use Wi-Fi technology. Wifi hotspots, personal home networks, and even laptop computers, smart-phones and Wi-Fi enabled PDAs would be affected."
On top of that registration takes about 10 days and requires an amount off paperwork equivalent to the application for erecting a call-tower. And that's for a wifi client device only!
"Registering a Wi-Fi hotspot, on the other hand, would be more difficult. Anyone wishing to set up as much as a personal home-network would need to file a complete set of documents, as well as technological certifications. Networks in Moscow or St. Petersburg would also need approval from the Federal Security Guard Service (FSO) and the Federal Security Service (FSB)."
Now I agree that this type of legislation makes no sense whatsoever and has strong dictatorial overtones. However I also wonder what effect this will have on FON's announced expansion into Russia. One of the participants in FON's last round of funding was Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema, Russia´s leading telecommunications company. Now, I might be wrong, but I suspect that FON's expansion into Russia might be one of the conditions of Sistema's involvement. This new legislation would seriously hamper people who would be interested in using a Fonera and jeopardise the possible success of FON's expansion..

Open Coffee Club BBQ (Ireland) gets it's own site!

The interest in the OpenCoffee BBQ in keeps growing so we have decided to give it it's own site/blog!
There is very little content there yet but together with Alex Leonard's help I am working hard to put up a nice them and more content over the next few days.

FON raises more money...

But is it good news?
FON the Spanish company that wants all of us to share our broadband connection through wifi announced last week that they raised another $9.5 million in a C round.
Now while this might sound like good news I have my doubts.
Look at these facts:

- In February 2006 Google Inc., Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype Technologies SA invested $21.5 million in FON.
- Last year the same investors coughed up another $13 million.
- Now they announce an additional investment of $9.5 million led by Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema, Russia´s leading telecommunications company, and strategic partner British Telecom PLC.
- FON's CEO Martin Varsavsky announces this news in the same blog-post that mentions
tough markets, bad market conditions and having to spend less money.
- FON has reduced their burn rate from an innitial $1.5 million p/m but still manage to accumulate losses of $800K per month in the last half year.
- A lot of people that bought FON's cheap routers reflashed and put them to a different use or just unplugged them.

It has also become clear to me, through discussions with "Foneras", that the amount of traffic going through FON's voluntary network is relatively low. So that's a lot of routers shipped, hard cash spent on their back-end but relative low return (by the looks of it). I wonder if their progress is measured by revenue or profit?
Another point is why in this third round of funding has not been less interesting for Google Inc., Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype? Surely if their previous funding had led to favourable results they would not allow a number of outside investors to come in and get a slice of the pie. Especially seeing that this C round funding came at a premium to previous investment as stated here.
Now I can see why BT invested. BT recently entered in a big partnership with FON and that would end as a fiasco if FON would run out of funding. The other main investor is Coral Capital Management, a Minneapolis-based venture capital arm of Sistema (Russia´s leading telecommunications company). I just wonder if FON's announcment of an expansion into Russia is a condition for this investment...
They also announce the launch of the Fonera 2.0 (the fonera that uploads and downloads stuff to and from the internet while you are doing something else with your laptop). I just wonder what this "stuff" is and how happy Foneras are to have this happen...
Would it be that they are building a P2P network and will use spare capacity on your laptop or networks hard drives to store data?

Geartip: extend your laptop's wifi range..

I've had a lot of requests over the years of people wondering how to extend the range in their laptop's built in wireless card.
While there are a lot of esoteric solutions there is one that In have tried and tested.
It's an external antenna that plugs into the radio inside your laptop and mounts neatly on the side of the laptop screen.
It's easy enough for someone with a bit of technical insight to install but it does require you to remove the casing of your laptop.
However, once installed it greatly improves the range of your laptop and also increases the throughput when connected to a wifi network.