LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jungo Ltd., an NDS Group company and a leading provider of software solutions for residential gateways, today announced that its OpenRG, residential gateway software, now supports Fon’s Wi-Fi sharing technology. Jungo is now able to deploy Fon compatibility across multiple devices for any operator or service provider that has deployed its OpenRG unified gateway software, enabling a range of different business models associated with the Fon service.
With over 30 million gateways deployed globally, partnering with Jungo greatly extends the reach of the Fon service - already the world’s largest Wi-Fi sharing community. The move will allow operators and ISPs to offer new ways for users to access broadband on the go. Subscribers who opt-in to securely share a small portion of their overall bandwidth with other Fon users can make free use of Fon hotspots around the world to access the same WiFi enabled services they do in-home.
"Fon has built the world’s largest WiFi network with over 3 million hotspots, and Telcos, ISPs and manufacturers are increasingly looking for ways to give their customers access to it,” said Alex Puregger, Fon’s COO. “We are pleased to be working with Jungo whose unified gateway software radically eases deployment of Fon technology to operators and helps grow our network faster.”
Opportunities exist for operators to build their own business models around Fon’s growing network of Wi-Fi hotspots. By using Jungo’s security software, operators are able to differentiate between subscriber and non-subscriber access, increasing stickiness by offering a value-added service for existing customers and allowing them to charge non-Fon community members for access. Additionally, operators are able to take advantage of the fact that Wi-Fi has the potential to work as an alternative channel for data to mobile, helping to reduce traffic on mobile networks and potentially earning additional revenue for operators.
“As operators look at new ways of delivering on the promise of unlimited internet access in and out of the home from a growing number of connected devices, Fon’s relevance is quickly increasing,” said Eran Rom, Jungo's CEO. “We are committed to helping drive the growth of the shared Wi-Fi community through our software implementations with operators. At the same time, we recognize the need for operators to realize tangible returns from Wi-Fi. Software that manages the security aspect of shared access is the key to these returns and enables operators to make a business out of shared connectivity.”
Jungo has commercially deployed its Fon Wi-Fi sharing solution for several service providers worldwide including British Telecom (BT). Jungo has now implemented Fon for Zon in Portugal, so its subscribers are able to become part of the Fon community and access free Wi-Fi at Fon Spots worldwide.
About Fon
Fon was founded in 2006 by entrepreneur and internet pioneer, Martin Varsavsky with the goal of free, ubiquitous WiFi for everyone. Today, Fon is the largest WiFi community in the world, providing WiFi at over three million Fon hotspots and to over six million users. Fon also partners with the world's leading broadband providers, hardware manufacturers and Telco operators to offer Fon-ready products. Fon's investors include British Telecom, the Coral Group, Google, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype.
About Jungo
Jungo Ltd., an NDS Group company, is a provider of broadband home value-added service solutions. Jungo's flagship products, OpenRG™ (residential gateway software platform) and OpenSMB™ (small and medium business gateway software platform) enable broadband operators to deliver managed revenue-generating services to the digital home.
Jungo also offers extensive connectivity software solutions for USB and PCI, including WinDriver™, a driver development toolkit that enables developers to quickly create custom device drivers that can run on a multitude of operating systems without modification, and USBware™, a complete, high-quality embedded USB software protocol stack, allowing device manufacturers to easily incorporate standard USB OTG/Host/Device connectivity in their designs. To find out more about Jungo Ltd. and our products, please visit www.jungo.com.
About NDS
NDS Group Ltd. creates the technologies and applications that enable pay-TV operators to securely deliver digital content to TV STBs (set-top boxes), DVRs (digital video recorders), PCs, mobiles and other multimedia devices. Over 75 of the world’s leading pay-TV platforms rely on NDS solutions to protect and enhance their businesses. VideoGuard® is the world’s market-leading conditional access (CA) and digital rights management (DRM) technology, currently deployed on 145 million active devices, and safeguarding pay-TV service revenues exceeding $50 billion. NDS middleware, including MediaHighway® which enables a host of advanced services for subscribers, has been deployed on 171 million devices. NDS DVR technology, centred around XTV™, leads the global industry with 35 million units deployed. (Deployment figures as of 31st December 2010).
Headquartered in the UK, NDS remains committed to investing in R&D with over 75% of its employees dedicated to pioneering work at development centres in China, Denmark, France, India, Israel, Korea, UK and US. NDS has also implemented a host of initiatives aimed at reducing its carbon footprint and helping digital TV subscribers reduce energy consumption. NDS Group Ltd. is a private company owned by the Permira Funds and News Corporation. See www.nds.com for more information.