From Fon Spots to Fon Zones: expanding Fon Spots range the mesh way

A Fon spot is a WiFi access point hosted by Foneros, members of the Fon community. Fon is building the world largest WiFi community.

The range of a Fon Spot is very limited, making it difficult for people to access it. Bills, who are Fon users who allow access to their Fon Spot for a fee, would like to reach more Aliens. Aliens are Fon users that roam on Fon Spot. Linus are Fon users that offer access to their Fon Spot for free in order to Bills and other Linus, and get free access to any Fon Spot worldwide. Linus, Alliens and Bills would like to be in range of more Fon Spots to get easily get WiFi wherever there are Fon Spot.

Fon came up with La Fontennna, a high gain antenna, to improve the Fon Spots range. Mark Varsavsky, CEO of Fon, stated on a posting in his blog (The Secret In The Fontennas...) that La Fontenna is to help Foneros, members of the Fon WiFi Community, extend their WiFi signal to reach localized areas around their house or flat and still have good signal at home.

I am a Fon user and I have a Fon Spot in my basement. I used La Fontenna to see how good of coverage I can get. La Fontenna does not improve the range of my Fon Spot that much. Keep in mind that the long antenna connection cable is not helping either (attenuation). La Fontenna did not help much in increasing my Fon Spot coverage. You can find a review from El Fon Blog (La Fontenna Review)

La Fonraki is a combination of the Fon Spot access point and the Meraki mesh network to create a mesh Fon Spot or Fon Zone. The Meraki outdoor gateway and Meraki indoor Mini repeater help you build neighborhood Network using mesh technology. It is as easy to setup as a Fon Spot. The Meraki gateway is creating a WiFi Mesh Network. The coverage is seamlessly expanded by adding more Meraki WiFi repeaters.

So think about it, you can use the Meraki outdoor gateway connected on your Fon Spot access point, through the LAN port using an Ethernet cable. So this is almost the same as La Fontenna, except using an ethernet cable and not an antenna cable. The range of the Fon Spot is doubled because both the Fon Spot access point and the Meraki gateway transmit Wi-Fi signals. Now this is where it gets exciting. You then add Meraki repeaters that create a mesh network back to the Meraki Gateway linked to the Fon Spot access point. Here you got a Fon Zone using La Fonraki.

The Meraki standard gateway cost $100 and the Meraki repeaters $50. By setting a standard network with the Meraki, your network is public. However by being connected to the Fon Spot, you can authenticate users and charge for or give free access to the expanded network. The Meraki network SSID is set to FON_MESH. So depending on how far users are they can connect to FON_AP the standard Fon Spot SSID or FON_MESH the Fon Zone using Meraki.

So here you have it. No need to wait for Fon to come up with a mesh version of the Fon Spot. Just combine Fon access point and Meraki gateway/repeaters and expand your Fon Spot with La Fonraki to create a Fon Zone. Imagine unwiring a whole appartment complex using Time Warner Internet feeding the Fon Spot access point linked to a Meraki mesh Network! The SuperBills will love it, Fon too. That means more alien will access more Fon Spots, then Bills will make more money, Fon will make more money, Linus and Bills will be able to access more Fon Spots for free. And for the ISPs, well its depends they may gain a piece of the action, they may loose on some customers opportunities.

May be then FON will comme up with their own mesh solution. What do you think Mark? or is it that the agreement you have with BT, TimeWarners and other big ISPs do not allow you to do mesh?

FON + MERAKI = LA FONRAKI
Convert your Fon Spot into a Fon Zone with La Fonraki and make it easier for all Foneros to get Wi-Fi everywhere they go.

Meraki Business Model

Meraki has the coolest Wifi mesh access point for $49 to bring Internet to the next billion people. But Meraki has changed its pricing model.

The Meraki mini access point cost $49. That was until 10/1/07. Meraki has decided to change their business model. You pay a different price for the Meraki mini based on the service level for the network management hosted application they provide you. Meraki has three service levels: Standard, Pro and Carrier. For the Standard edition, you pay $49 for the Meraki mini and you get very basic network management. For the Pro edition, you get in addition, billing capabilities with more advanced network management capabilities, but you pay $149, for the same Meraki mini as in the Standard . The only recurring fee is that you pay the Meraki 20% for every Internet access sale you make. You set your own price on the Meraki dashboard. Keep in mind that the Meraki mini is exactly the same unit whether you sign up for the Standard edition of the Pro edition. Meraki has not provided detailed information about the Carrier edition.

What is your take on the Meraki new business model?