In order to do anything economically with wifi, you either have to do it under the radar as a private citizen or you need at least 10.000 customers to cover your fees. Anything in between is impossible unless you and your investors are willing to take an enormous legal risk.

This is why I believe this policy is highly anti competitive (albeit never intended that way).

I believe you are referring to Fon [0]. Unfortunately, they do not ship to Australia, presumably for legal reasons (the other problem being import restrictions on wifi equipment, adding another 3-6K to the bill)…

[0] http://www.fon.com/en/

However, I think you might escape the definition of carrier in a whole host of ways. The premises are less tha 500 metres apart, or that the radio “network” is provided on a “non-commercial basis” – which would be the case if all you want to do is share the cost of the fixed link, not if you intend to “profit” from it.

The Australian carrier licensing regime is one of the most deregulated in the world so don’t complain too much.

Finally, there is a mob but I can’t remember their names who’ve developed a business model for just this kind of WiFi sharing.

But how does Tomizone deal with the Carrier License issue?

Do they have a license? In that case, do they still own the devices?

Do they expect their users to have a license? (Which nobody can afford)

Or do they just hope nobody gets sued?