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Wed, 31 Oct 2007 Steve Jobs' interested in WiFi sharing

WiFi everywhere for free is the future, some claim

Jonny Evans

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs is very interested in finding a way toward pervasive WiFi access, and recently met with a service operator which attempts to enable these.

Argentinian entrepreneur Martin Varsavsky runs a new service called FON. This service lets consumer users share their wireless hotspots with other users in exchange for free WIFi access elsewhere.

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Varsavsky met with Jobs to discuss the service, which works by splitting a WiFi signal in two, one for sharing with other FON users, the other for a user's own (secured) broadband access.

FON is backed by one of Apple's first seed investors, the Sequoia Capital group. The service has become one of the world's largest WiFi communities - hence the Apple meeting.

Discussing Jobs, Varsavsky reveals: "He was very interested in FON; the meeting went on for an hour and a half.

"He's extremely curious. He asks a lot of questions. He's not the nicest guy - I mean his questions are inquisitive to say the least. He's to the point," he added.

The meeting went well, the FON boss said, observing: "I really think Jobs liked the idea of FON. I think he loves the idea of a world where people share WiFi. That I could tell. think he would like for there to be an opportunity for everyone to share WiFi."

Varsavsky's video report on his meeting with Steve Jobs is available here.

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