Fon Russia and Comstar Partnership

When I first saw this whole deal with Fon Russia, I thought it was a complete joke. Fon used part of the 9.5 million dollars that they received for this and just recently El Fon Blog made a post about the number of active Fon Spots and found out (on May 21, 2008) that Fon Russia only had 23 Hotspots! Now, Fon has partnered up with Comstar in Russia and (a quote from Martin's blog)

"Comstar and FON will jointly develop a Wi-Fi internet access network in Russia, initially focusing on Comstar’s subscribers in Moscow, who will be able to easily join the FON Community. Comstar plans to establish 30,000 Wi-Fi access points in Moscow in 2008-2009 before expanding to other regions.

Comstar’s users will be able to rent La Fonera routers, connect them to their Internet connection and join the FON network. Like other Foneros, they will be able to roam for free in any place covered by FON, including the Comstar-FON network, using personal login and password details for Comstar’s DSL network. People who are not Foneros (we call them Aliens) will be able to access Comstar-FON’s network using pre-paid cards, SMS or the usual options available on our captive portal."

I guess that another 30,000 Fon hotspots would help add to the total of Fon spots worldwide (more in Russia doesn't do me any good though) and no where does Martin say in his post that the hotspots that Comstar plans on creating will all be Fon Spots. Also, Comstar users will have to rent La Fonera's. (who's making money off of this anyway? Fon and/or Comstar.)

Glad to see that money is being spent were it is needed. I think Fon needs to start doing more for the USA.

Martins Blog: "FON partners with Comstar in Russia"

Fon Blog: "COMSTAR AND FON WIRELESS DEVELOP GLOBAL WI-FI NETWORK IN RUSSIA"