FON

This article is about the Wi-Fi Internet access sharing company. For other uses, see Fon (disambiguation).
Fon
Private
Industry Computer hardware
Wi-Fi service
Founded 2005
Founder Martín Varsavsky
Headquarters Alcobendas, Community of Madrid, Spain
Key people
 Martín Varsavsky, Founder & CEO
Products Fonera WiFi Routers
Slogan WiFi for everyone
Website fon.com
FON WiFi Spots Worldwide

Fon (Fon Wireless Ltd.) is a company that operates a system of dual access wireless networks.

Members, whom the company calls "Foneros", agree to share a part of their bandwidth as a Wi-Fi signal, so that they can connect to other members' hotspots. Consumers who choose not to share their Internet connection can buy Wi-Fi access passes or credit from Fon.

Company

Fon Wireless Ltd. is a for-profit company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom. It was created in Madrid, Spain, by Martín Varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations. Fon also has subsidiaries and branch offices in the USA, UK, Brazil, France, Germany and Japan. Its investors include Atomico Ventures, Google, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype.[1]

Fon membership

To become a Fon member (Fonero) and join the Fon community, one must own a Fonera router or a router with the Fon software built in. This enables users to share a portion of their Wi-Fi bandwidth, and in exchange get the right to use other members' Fon Spots.

Types of Fon membership

Fon Members are on an equal basis, if you share Wi-Fi you can use another Fon members Wi-Fi. This changed on December the 9th 2014 from the previous different membership types. Any built credit was returned to the member concerned.[2]

Fon had three levels of membership explained below and listed below for interest only. Not all levels are available in all countries. Especially in countries where Fon has partnered with the country's national telecoms provider (e.g. BT in the UK) the Bill profit sharing level is no longer available to new users. In early 2013 Fon partnered with Deutsche Telekom and 'Bills' are no longer available.[3]

In countries where FON has partnered with local ISPs, such as Greece, FON may not offer any kind of membership other than through a specific ISP, thus making Fon an ISP service rather than a community.

The membership levels were:

Paid access

A non-member, termed an Alien, is anyone who connects to a Fon Spot but does not share their Internet access at home or other location. This kind of user may purchase daily access passes to use the Fon network.

Access passes can be bought directly from the access point's portal page; it is also possible to register with Fon from that page. Passes can also be pre-purchased and used at a later date. In Spain, Germany, France, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, South Africa and the United States it is also possible to buy passes by sending a text message from a mobile phone.

Hardware and firmware

Originally Fon began with a software download for compatible routers, in particular, Linksys routers. This is custom firmware based on OpenWrt.

Fon started using the OpenWRT base as firmware base for Fon branded routers. The firmware has been customised specifically for use in the Fon Community, allowing consumers to share their broadband connection and to connect to other Fon Spots around the world.

Fon developed a number of their own products:

Fon firmware creates two different Wi-Fi signals: one private and one public.[7]

The new 2014 Fonera SIMPL, introduced in February 2014, includes Facebook integration. The owner of the Fonera SIMPL may register their own Facebook account with the device. Once this is done, any user that is a 'Facebook Friend' of the owner is granted access to that Fonera (only).[6]

A Business model of the Fonera, the 'Fonera Business' is currently in Beta. It intends to take Facebook integration further by offering free WiFi to customers of a business who are asked to 'Like' the Facebook page for the business in order to gain free WiFi access.[8]

Collaborations

Fon claims to have the largest Wi-Fi network in the world, with over 14 million hotspots as at March 2015.[9][10]

BT Fon Community

BT Group (formerly known as British Telecom) is the first and largest Fon collaboration. On October 4, 2007, Fon and BT announced that they had jointly created the BT Fon Community by flashing Fon's software on all BT Total Broadband Wi-Fi routers in the UK.[11] This allows BT Total Broadband customers to participate in the FON community without buying a Fonera and in some cases (where the customer has since replaced the BT Hardware after creating the BTFon account) without sharing their own WiFi. Since March 2007 BT has supplied it customers with routers that already have FON software preinstalled and enabled offering an opt out service,[12] although recent changes are seeing the service (along with the BT OpenZone brand) being rebranded to the unified service of BTWiFi.[13]

SFR

Fon and SFR (Neuf Cegetel) launched Fon on Wi-Fi routers throughout France. SFR subscribers can opt into Fon to share and receive Wi-Fi services.[14]

NOS wi-fi (formerly ZON@FON)

NOS is the leading cable provider in Portugal, resulting from a merger between ZON Multimedia and Optimus Telecomunicações. Back in 2008, ZON partnered with Fon to create ZON@FON (currently NOS wi-fi), the largest Wi-Fi network in Portugal. Fon technology is built into NOS wi-fi routers so its subscribers become part of the Fon community automatically.[15]

SoftBank

SoftBank is Fon's first collaboration with a mobile line operator wanting to offload data traffic to Wi-Fi. Since 2010, SoftBank bundles a Fonera with every iPhone they sell.

Proximus

Proximus, Belgium's biggest telecommunications company, joined the Fon network in November 2011. Proximus (then called Belgacom) added Fon's WiFi-sharing technology to its BBox2 modem earlier in 2011, making it possible to broadcast two WiFi signals from a broadband internet source. One signal is encrypted and private. The other signal is public but only accessible via password. Membership is automatically activated (opt-out).

KPN

KPN, a large telecomunications company in the Netherlands, joined the Fon network in January 2013. Public launch of the Fon network on KPN modems is expected to be enabled later in 2013.[16] But the roll out has been pushed back to April 2014.[17]

Deutsche Telekom

New partnership with Deutsche Telekom announced in March 2013 to take effect later in the year.

MWEB ADSL South Africa

MWEB just announced a partnership with Fon; February 2014. What this means is that MWEB customers that have a Fon enabled router can share their WiFi Bandwidth and also use those of other Fon users in the countries and locations that Fon have partners.[18]

OTE in Greece

In February 2014 Greek telecommunications company OTE and Fon announced a partnership to bring the Fon service to OTE subscribers in Greece.[19]

In Greece, OTE subscribers share 1 Mbit/s of their downstream capacity for the Fon service and earn the right to use the Fon service provided by other OTE subscribers. If a customer has disabled their Fon WiFi signal for 30 days then they lose the right to use the Fon service provided by other OTE subscribers until they enable it again. OTE has announced that the Fon service is built-in in all OTE-provided routers and enabled by default. Subscribers who don't wish to participate can request an opt-out.

JT Global

On 28 March 2014 the Jersey telecommunications provider JT Global announced a partnership with Fon. The Fon service will be available later in 2014 to JT broadband subscribers which use the company's fibre to the home service.[20]

Telstra in Australia

Telstra WiFi Hotspot located on a public telephone in Sydney.

On 20 May 2014 the Australian telecommunications provider Telstra announced a Fon service to be available in November 2014 called Telstra Wi-Fi.[21] Telstra broadband subscribers will receive free use of WiFi hotspots, to be initially located in the Central Business Districts of Australian state capitals.[22]

However, as at December 2014 Telstra has not offered Fon service to its customers but it has introduced a limited number of free wifi hotspots for use by anyone. These are generally located in the street on Telstra payphones. Telstra has stated that it will introduce a charge-based model for these hotspots early in 2015. On the 30th of June 2015 Telstra's rebranded their 'WiFi Nation' program to Telstra Air which allows home broadband users to share a WIFI signal at home for access to the Telstra Air with Fon network. Users who do not share WIFI signals will eventually be able to purchase access cards to use the Telstra Air with Fon networks.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Fon - The Global WiFi Network providing WiFi access through hotspots". Fon. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  2. ↑ "Fon changes membership levels email". Retrieved 22 Jan 2014.
  3. ↑ "Fon". Facebook. Retrieved 1 May 2013.
  4. ↑ Money making WiFi, Fon - Money Making WiFi
  5. ↑ What is a Fonero, Linus, Bill, Alien?, Fon FAQ.
  6. 1 2 "Geolocalization - Fon". Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  7. ↑ "Fon - The Global WiFi Network providing WiFi access through hotspots". Fon. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  8. ↑ https://shop.fon.com/en/products/business-wifi
  9. ↑ "Fon announces next generation Fonera Simpl with EAP optimized for mobile devices" (Press release). Fon. Business Wire. 26 February 2012.
  10. ↑ "Fon - Blog to keep you updated about the WiFi ecosystem". Fon. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  11. ↑ "BT and Fon launch the world's largest Wi-Fi community" (PDF). BTFon. 2007-10-04.
  12. ↑ "BT and Fon launch the world's largest Wi-Fi community". BTFon. 2013-05-30.
  13. ↑ "I can see BT Openzone, BT Fon and BT Wi-fi as available networks. Which should I use?". BTFon. 2013-05-30.
  14. ↑ Kirstin Ridley (2007-10-04). "BT links up with Fon for 'people's' Wi-Fi network". Reuters.
  15. ↑ Fon and Zon launch the ZON@FON WiFi Community in Portugal, Martinvarsavsky.net.
  16. ↑ KPN biedt wereldwijd publiek WiFi netwerk via samenwerking met Fon, kpn.com.
  17. ↑ Uitrol landelijk wifinetwerk start in april, consumentenbond.nl
  18. ↑ "MWEB joins forces with world’s largest WiFi network - IT News Africa- Africa's Technology News Leader". Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  19. ↑ "Fon and OTE Announce WiFi Partnership In Greece". Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  20. ↑ "Your Wi-Fi is going global". JT Global. 28 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  21. ↑ "Telstra Wi-Fi: Offering Australians more ways to connect". Telstra. 20 May 2014. Retrieved i October 2014. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)
  22. ↑ "Telstra plans free trial for Wi-Fi network in November". Znet. 30 September 2014. Retrieved 1 October 2014.

External links

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