Fon SA, a Madrid-based community WiFi developer, announced the launch yesterday of its service in Taiwan as an alternative for local users to obtain free or low-cost Internet access.
Founded in November last year, Fon's service allows users with wireless routers to share some of their bandwidth at home, and get free access to the Internet wherever there is Fon coverage.
In that way, every Fon user who shares his/her bandwidth is an access point. The more access points there are, the bigger the coverage.
As of the end of last month, there were over 170,000 members of Fon in 140 countries, making it the world's fastest-growing WiFi community, Alexander Puregger, Fon's general manager in Asia, told reporters on the sideline of a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
Fon is in talks with local Internet service providers (ISP) and telecom companies to jointly promote the WiFi-sharing service, with Digital United Inc (
By the end of January, Fon hopes to rope in at least 5,000 access points, Puregger said, adding that there were already 2,000 users in Taiwan registered with the Fon, even before the local Website was launched.
Digital United, operator of Seednet ISP, has commenced promoting the Fon service as part of IT Month activities, giving free routers to users who subscribe to its ADSL.
"By working with Fon, we can expand our hotspots at a faster pace at much lower cost," said Tsou Shih-ming (
Digital United currently has around 250,000 ADSL subscribers, and the company intends to promote the Fon service among established users, Tsou said.
Once the Fon network is large enough in Taiwan, Fon will consider charging people who do not join the Fon community but want to use the connection, probably six months after the launch, Lin Yi-kai (
The charge will be about US$3 for the first 24 hours, and US$2 for the next 24 hours, Puregger said. Income is divided evenly between Fon and hotspot providers, Puregger said.
Puregger said Fon is not afraid of the already intense competition for broadband access, including Taipei City's Wifly service.
Once more mobile devices are WiFi-enabled, such as digital cameras, game consoles and digital music players, the demand for high-speed transmission will rise.
AI BOOST: Although Taiwan’s reliance on Chinese rare earth elements is limited, it could face indirect impacts from supply issues and price volatility, an economist said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) has sharply raised its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth this year to 5.6 percent, citing stronger-than-expected exports and investment linked to artificial intelligence (AI), as it said that the current momentum could peak soon. The acceleration of the global AI race has fueled a surge in Taiwan’s AI-related capital spending and exports of information and communications technology (ICT) products, which have been key drivers of growth this year. “We have revised our GDP forecast for Taiwan upward to 5.6 percent from 4 percent, an upgrade that mainly reflects stronger-than-expected AI-related exports and investment in the third
Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽) shares surged to a seven-month high this week after local media reported that E.Sun Financial Holding Co (玉山金控) had outbid CTBC Financial Holding Co (中信金控) in the financially strained insurer’s ongoing sale process. Shares of the mid-sized life insurer climbed 5.8 percent this week to NT$6.72, extending a nearly 18 percent rally over the past month, as investors bet on the likelihood of an impending takeover. The final round of bidding closed on Thursday, marking a critical step in the 32-year-old insurer’s search for a buyer after years of struggling to meet capital adequacy requirements. Local media reports
TECHNOLOGICAL RIVALRY: The artificial intelligence chip competition among multiple players would likely intensify over the next two years, a Quanta official said Quanta Computer Inc (廣達), which makes servers and laptops on a contract basis, yesterday said its shipments of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s GB300 chips have increased steadily since last month, should surpass those of the GB200 models this quarter. The production of GB300 servers has gone much more smoothly than that of the GB200, with shipments projected to increase sharply next month, Quanta executive vice president Mike Yang (楊麒令) said on the sidelines of a technology forum in Taipei. While orders for GB200 servers gradually decrease, the production transition between the two server models has been
ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing supplier, yesterday announced a strategic collaboration with Analog Devices Inc (ADI), coupled with the signing of a binding memorandum of understanding. Under the agreement, ASE intends to purchase 100 percent shares of Analog Devices Sdn Bhd and acquire its manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, a press release showed. The ADI Penang facility is located in the prime industrial hub of Bayan Lepas, with an area of over 680,000 square feet, it said. In addition, the two sides intend to enter into a long-term supply agreement for ASE to
RSS