Startup Launches Open Wi-Fi, Challenging ISPs

Chuckles08 writes "Forbes has a story about how FreedomPop is trying to disrupt the public Wi-fi business. From the article: 'Getting hosed by your Internet service provider may seem as inevitable as death and taxes, but a new startup aims to change that. Startup FreedomPop, which is backed by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstrom, DCM and Mangrove Capital, provides cheaper Internet access and the ability for people to share access with others on its network.'"

Internet as a commodity

[gagol]

I hope it can disrupt the connectivity oligopoly that reigns at the moment. North America's connectivity is, on average, twice as bad as Romania in 30 something position. Lets do this!

Prediction:

[SuricouRaven]

At some point, someone is going to get into *serious* legal trouble through this. Most likely via someone using their connection transfering child porn and getting caught. It only has to happen once. The story will be widely publicised, including all the horrifying details of the caught-in-the-middle victim having their life torn apart, losing their job, being vilified by their neighbours, and having every computer, phone, games console, hard drive and USB stick they own confiscated as evidence. As a result of this, other users will be terrified to share their connection and risk becoming the next victim of an investigation.

The same reason there are so few tor exit nodes.

Re:Share access?

[Anonymous Coward]

If more people did it then the feds wouldn't have such an easy time busting down peoples doors. The whole reason the courts are OK with it is because it is seen as highly probable that the owner or someone within the household committed a crime. However if you have shared access then there is a higher chance that a neighbor did it. If you multiply that and half of the busts are of innocent people there it defeats the points of busting people in the first place.

Re:Prediction:

[wjh31]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ipv6+spoofing [lmgtfy.com]

Re:Open Wi-Fi in The Netherlands

[sciencewatcher]

Absolutely, it is just an attempt by the cable company to keep it's customers from going to the competition for commercial reasons. The cable company does not have a cellular phone network and in this way tries to add functionality to compensate for that. It might become an interesting development.