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And for two, we still hear stories about lost souls getting picked up by the local cops for mooching wireless connections from the comfort of their pickup trucks.(Note to wireless piggybackers: Any coffee shop owner willing to call her place of business "Brewed Awakenings" cannot at all be counted on to have anything like a useful sense of humor.)
It was only a matter of time before businesses started trying to monetize what amounts to a state of near-total chaos in wireless connectivity.
We're all familiar with paid hotspots, for instance.
But that's a model no one's eager to sustain for long: There are costs associated with management and maintenance, for instance.
Unless, that is, a company were to hand off management and maintenance to its customers.
That's the FON model:
Sell (or give away) a special wireless router anyone can connect to a home broadband connection.
The FON router provides a private network segment for the hosting user and a public wireless access point for passers by.
Prospective FON users (aka "Foneros") can either pay $39.95 for the FON "social router," keep an eye on the FON blog for the occasional $5 offer, or even flash an existing router's firmware, converting it into a social router at no cost.
The new fonero can decide how much bandwidth to parcel out to passers by, and whether to be a "Linus" or a "Bill."
"Linuses" share their connection and, in turn, can s...
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