Speakeasy Says FON Who?

Say That Again

from the say-what....? dept

Looks like the newly announced big name backers of FON, the gimmicky WiFi sharing plan, probably should have done a bit more due diligence. As we noted, among the many, many huge challenges this offering needs to overcome, the biggest may be that very few ISPs allow any kind of sharing or reselling of your connection. In the US, the only one that does so is Speakeasy, who announced such a program years ago. So, it was interesting that along with the announcement about raising money, Fon founder Martin Varsavsky tried to head off the question of ISPs supporting his plan by pointing to Speakeasy as a partner of sorts, claiming: “I am pleased to announced today that we have obtained the support of two significant ISPs for FON. In America Speakeasy has said that they welcome FON and in Europe, Glocalnet and FON have signed an agreement.” Problem is, according to Speakeasy, it has no relationship with FON whatsoever, and doesn’t appreciate any implied relationship. In fact, folks at Speakeasy are calling their lawyers to demand that FON issue a retraction.