Just when you think you have stomached all the bad acting that you can, here comes Kermit Seagal in an all out feast of cheese.

Part 6 of our Secret Headquarters series. Here we find the design department. A truly paperless affair with ample space to stretch my legs. I now have a robot assistant that doubles as a CPE. The level above, which is the data center area is run by the cryogenically frozen head of “THE PROFFESSOR”.

Lets end off the month of May with a bit of corniness. A Kermit Seagal fest is just the ticket to snuggle up to as we head into winter. Lets get out the popcorn for…

Part 5 of our Secret Headquarters series. Procurement and Finances can be found on this floor, while beneath it we find Third Level Support. In the top right corner behind the stairs is a sign for our Schoolwan project that inter-connects schools in South Africa.

“I’m afraid to close my eyes, I’m afraid to open them.”

Introducing the Frogspot Network

Frogfoot Networks is creating a revolutionary Wireless Broadband Network and motivating a wide community of people to help them build it. Using inexpensive Wifi technology and an innovative business model they plan to offer broadband internet to a broader market.

Frogfoot wanted to build a business model that would stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit in people. Something that would spread through word of mouth. Something fun and innovative that builds recurring monthly revenue. A viral business model.

They created a model that empowers entrepreneurs to build and operate a Broadband Access Network, extending the reach of existing internet connections with Wireless Hotspots. Think of their business model as a way for a community of people to build infrastructure in a distributed and democratised way. “Share with your neighbour, but make some money for your efforts” said Johann Botha, one of Frogfoot’s Directors.

Consider the untapped potential that could be unlocked by adding a hotspot to every existing internet connection in South Africa. An ADSL line which used to serve one or two people could now server 10 or more. Frogfoot is betting on each of these network end-points blooming into a Wifi Hotspot to reach thousands more people. With more than 100% month to month growth over the last six months, their bet seems to be paying off.

“At Frogfoot we like to say: Let the animals run the zoo!, which captures our vision of empowering entrepreneurs to build networks.” said Johann. “We set out to build a business model which we would have wanted to get involved in ourselves.”

“People are setting up Hotspots in suburbs or apartment complexes and are making enough money to pay for their own internet usage, plus they walk away with a few hundred rands in their back pockets” said Jonathan Endersby, one of Frogfoot’s developers.

Frogfoot’s end-user Wifi costs are amongst the lowest Wifi access costs available with packages as little as 12c per megabyte. The company also sells various scratch cards with denominations as small as 25MB for R9.95.

The Green Agents

Frogfoot recently launched their Hotspot Agent program. Hotspot Agents help build a network of Wifi Hotspots by introducing new Hotspot Operators.

Hotspot Agents earn 20% of profits from Hotspots they introduce. And best of all, this is an ongoing passive income stream.

All an Agent has to do is have a cup of coffee with someone and say “This Frogspot thing is really cool, look at their website and go order yourself one.”

While the offer might sound too good to be true it’s actually built on solid business principles. Frogfoot benefits from the increased reach given to them by their Agents and in turn gives the Agents a cut of the profits.

“The crux of this model is that if someone gets a few hotspots on their books they’ll be making money without doing any work” said Jonathan “… and that money will keep on appearing in their account every single month for as long as the hotspots are moving megabytes.”

About Frogfoot:
Frogfoot Networks is an Independent Technology Company providing innovative Internet Services and Open Source Solutions. Their service offering includes: Wifi Hotpots, ADSL, Linux Virtual Servers, VPNs and Web Hosting. Frogfoot was founded in 2000 and is based in Newlands, Cape Town.

More information:
www.frogfoot.com
0860 KERMIT

Looking to end off the week with a bit of mayhem? Look no further than Quentin Tadpole-tino’s KILL BILL GATES!.

I just added a new page and a diagram as a high level overview of the Frogfoot Hotspot business model.

Feel free to post a comment if you have questions.

Part 4 of our Secret Headquarters series. Here we find the Frogfoot parking area for our fleet of Frog vehicles. These are used for on site support and delivering of equipment to various locations. The escalator leads to the reception area and beneath that lies the sales office. We also promote the GeekDinner movement where we can.

Our hotspots are pretty cool and people are always asking about details… you know… money!

I figured it would be a good idea to show some of our cards (poker analogy) so that people can get an idea of how much money there is to be made by operating hotspots.

Lets take the modest (but real) example of a hotspot operated by one of our customers in a house with some boarders. In April the boarders used almost 4 gigabytes of data earning the operator of the hotspot R525 commission. Considering the hotspot operator’s total monthly costs were only R199 (Including the ADSL line) he walked away with R326 profit. The particular hotspot operator used about 2 gigabytes of data for his personal use in April which only cost him R138. In the end he got Free Internet and R188 in his back pocket.

This scales quite nicely though. We have another hotspot that in April moved 33 gigabytes… That one hotspot made the operator almost R4,500 and that operator has quite a few hotspots.

The other interesting thing about the hotspot business model is our Hotspot Agents. A Hotspot Agent is an entrepreneurial individual who introduces new Hotspot Operators to the Frogfoot Wifi Network. He identifies new operators, helps them understand the Hotspot business model and gets them to order their Hotspots through him. By simply acting as matchmakers they make 20% of the profits. You can read more about this on the Hotspot Agent page.

There’s lots of other questions that people always seem to ask so I also put together a FAQ (frequently asked questions) list.

Got any more questions? Feel free to leave a comment.