FON Boards

Hi,

I am thinking about joining FON (which seems to be a rare things these days).... and I am confused about whether or not you can become a bill in the UK. On Fon's wiki, which looks outdated, it says you cannot become a bill. however there are clearly people on these forums in the UK who are making money from their fonspots. Is the restriction just for BT Homehubs or for La Fonera+ in the UK as well?

thanks for your help!
Jamie

Foneras sold to UK addresses have the BT-controlled firmware edition. Foneros who register with a UK address are unable to become Bills because BT does not want you to. It does not matter to BT nor Fon who your ISP is. Fon has basically sold controlling rights to them over Foneros who reside within their potential service region.

You could become a Bill in the UK by registering outside the UK and importing a router which was originally sold outside the UK region.

Sounds like a good idea. If you buy a continental Fonera 2.0 with the configurable firmware but have a UK based account on the Fon Website, will that allow you to be a bill? I'm not sure how i could register outside of the UK!

Fon doesn't really know where you live (unless they've shipped something to you there), and they don't know where your Fonera is actually connected to the Internet. All they know is what you filled out in your profile, and what firmware is on the router when you use it.

Simply set up a sacrificial account in order to have the router shipped to you in the UK (Fon could care less since the more "registered members" they get, the bigger their population seems when they show their numbers to investors), and order your router. Then, set up the desired account (this email address will become your login username, so you might want to select a short one) with fake address anywhere else in the world (except Portugal), Reflash La Fonera's firmware to non-UK first (I can't guarantee this will be easy), then register it to the account with a non-UK address, and then switch from Linus to Bill. There ya go; you're a Bill in the UK.

The easiest thing would probably be to have a friend outside the UK set up a legitemate Fonero account country, and have the router shipped to him there (so there is no confusion with the registered address). He can register it to that email address, and once done, he can ship the router on to you in the UK, and give you the password for that email address/Fonero username. When you plug it in within the UK, Fon will think that he is visiting the UK and brought his router with him. Not that they check OR care. Lastly, set up a PayPal account using your non-UK Fonero email address (you'll have to give PayPal your real contact info - I seriously doubt that they share this with Fon), and then switch your Fonero account to Bill. Again, Fon has no idea where you're located, just that all of your credentials are non-UK.

Unless you are running a guest house or something similar i wouldnt expect too much income
i provide a reasonable fon coverage in a dense inner city population including itinerant students and
not even had anyone even log on in over six months.
Also if you are running a cafe then its generally accepted that providing free wifi will make more money
by selling extra cups of coffee than trying to sell network access.

Ask yourself if you would pay to access someones home network which might get turned off when
they go out / go to bed? For me i'd rather spend 15 quid topping up a 3G dongle dongle.
Dont get me wrong im happy to use fon as a linus and save using up my 3g payg data allowance
on the infrequent occasions i can hop on a fon signal but i wouldnt pay to access fon and i suspect
many people have a similar view.

you can flash a "continental" fon image using http://flash.fonera.be on your Fonera
with this aliens will be using your public ip and not the special poboxing vpn service provided for UK residents
I'm not yet familiar if the Fonera 2.0g/n sold to the UK has this "poboxing vpn" as well

when registering on such "continental" fon you are not redirected to BTfon.com and thus you can select "bill"

You should have no problem with a Fonera ( obtainable via Ebay) , but the Fonera+ may have the non-Bill firmware - older ones are okay.
FON told me that there is no problem with the Fonera N .

I run a Fonera and a Fonera + as a Bill in the UK with no problems.

If you get a Fonera from Ebay it is easier to get one which has not been registered or from someone who will tell FON to transfer it to your account.

As mater of curiosity (and its an honest question - im not trying to be funny here)
have you managed to receive any income as a bill?
like i said earlier i havent even had a login that i know of when i would have half
anticipated some enterprising student to use their folks bt credentials to get stopgap
internet access in the area where i live.

In the last year I have received £24 and have another £19 waiting.
I do live in a prime tourist location with plenty of holiday lets around but stone walls dont help coverage and a good outside antenna is out of the question.
I do get regular use(nonpaying) by a BT Openzone user.

Main use is to provide BB for holiday let next door via F&F as the owners are friends !

The lets near me are more annual rather than holiday so that would make a difference
tho i thought i might have had some interest if only for a week or so when the new
college year started until the studentos got their dsl enabled.