FON gets Competition

This was bound to happen, and now it’s a fact. FON gets competition in the name of Whisher, which was launched at DEMO yesterday. Venturebeat has a good write-up about it, including that Benchmark Capital Europe with Klaus Hommels led the investment round. Interestingly enough both start-ups are starting in Spain, but that is another matter. The interesting thing is not to see who will get the better coverage. In my view FON has the upside that coffee shops and the like will get a router for free or cheap and can really earn money in the system, meaning that you are likely to find a FON hotspot in a coffee shop or hotel in the not too distant future (I actually found a small conference hotel near here that has one :)). The good side with Whisher is really that it has a very likely viral effect. I often go to friends and they have a wireless lan and I have to ask for the key and things. With Whisher we can all be part of a community that trusts each other and allows us to share each others wifi in an easy and simple manner. You simply install an application that gives you access to other hotspots that are part of the network, simple as that.

I will have to try it out to get a better idea but they have the money to really push it now, which is good. We need more stuff like this and it is still undecided who will win in the end.

P.S.: And I am starting to see some scenarios where a pub might really want to have a Whisher hotspot with community features rather than a FON hotspot. They don’t really need to earn money but can see it as a marketing expense, which they do anyway. We’ll see how this plays out.