Fon, the crowdsourced wi-fi hotspot provider that uses technology allowing people to securely share their home broadband connections, has announced a partnership with German telco Deutsche Telekom to build what it’s calling the country’s largest wi-fi hotspot network. The joint network will launch in the summer, under the not exactly catchy name ‘WLAN TO GO’. → Read More
When serial entrepreneur Martin Varsavky launched Fon in late 2005, his goal was to blanket the world with easily-accessible, crowdsourced Wi-Fi. While the service hasn’t quite made it everywhere yet, Fon has just announced that they now have over 5 million hotspots in operation across the globe. → Read More
Fon, the WiFi network company backed by Google and Skype, says you can find 3.35 million Fon hotspots all across the globe these days. That’s impressive growth, which comes down to more to 200 percent year-over-year. Last time Fon shared numbers, the company revealed that it tracked 2.5 million hotspots (this was in October 2010).
Clearly, growth is accelerating for the company, in large part… → Read More
Fon, the WiFi network company backed by Google and Skype, says you can find 3.35 million Fon hotspots all across the globe these days. That’s impressive growth, which comes down to more to 200 percent year-over-year. Last time Fon shared numbers, the company revealed that it tracked 2.5 million hotspots (this was in October 2010).
Clearly, growth is accelerating for the company, in large part… → Read More
BT has announced that its UK WiFi network now boasts over two million hotspots, making it the number one provider in Blighty. Additionally, the Telco says that it’s added more than 780,000 hotspots in the last six months to meet demand of users of smartphones, laptops, tablets, iPods and e-readers. Yes it seems that we Brits love our WiFi.
It’s worth noting, however, that BT was largely able to… → Read More
Fon, the company with a fairly simple but extremely bold and tough mission (to cover the entire globe with free Wi-Fi), now boasts over 2.5 million hotspots located around the planet. In a brief blog post, entrepreneur, teacher and philanthropist Martin Varsavsky – who founded the company back in 2006 – makes it clear that this is a huge number.
He estimates that the company, which is backed by… → Read More
Fon, the company with a fairly simple but extremely bold and tough mission (to cover the entire globe with free Wi-Fi), now boasts over 2.5 million hotspots located around the planet. In a brief blog post, entrepreneur, teacher and philanthropist Martin Varsavsky – who founded the company back in 2006 – makes it clear that this is a huge number.
He estimates that the company, which is backed by… → Read More
Simple communication gadget Peek is making its way to Europe, courtesy of Spain-based Fon, whose founder and CEO Martin Varsavsky is making the announcement later today at the Le Web conference here in Paris.
Prior to his stage appearance, Varsavsky shared the details of the distribution partnership on his widely read blog.
The price of the PeekFon will be €99, and the service will cost… → Read More
The U.S. press hasn’t been particularly kind to the Peek email device. It isn’t that it doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do – email. The issue is more that people already have their phones to do this, and those phones can also deal with images, links to websites, etc.
But the Peek may just be the perfect device for Europe, and Spain’s FON is going to take a shot at distributing it here under the… → Read More
The Fonera name doesn’t really mean much here in the U S of A, but it’s a little more popular in Europe. (I know I occasionally ran into Fonera Wi-Fi networks in Barcelona last year, and I had never seen one in Manhattan or Queens in New York.) In any event, Fon has, indeed, released the Fonera 2n router here in the U.S.. The big thing is that it works with 802.11n. I guess that’s what the “n”… → Read More
As you recall Fon makes wireless routers for sharing. You install the Fon node in your house, share it with others, and then are given access to other Fonera routers around the world. It’s sort of a viral Wi-Fi community.
Now, however, the Fonera is incredibly more interesting. The device can now access web services without the aid of a computer, allowing you to download torrents and “content” as… → Read More
PSP fanboys, take note. Starting today, your little Sony buddy can hop on any of the FON Wi-Fi spots. Details aren’t exactly clear as if full internet will be available or if it is just going to be Sony-exclusive material. As far as the service goes though, there are around 44,000 FON spots world-wide so chance are that unless you’re in the middle of the a corn field, there is probably… → Read More
Ready for worldwide, wireless Internet access? Keep dreaming! You remember FON, right? There’s a small piece in the International Herald Tribune that tries to explain why the hippie-sounding service hasn’t taken off yet. Whereas, to be successful, FON needs millions of users spread around the world, each sharing their Internet connection wirelessly, so far only 830,000 people have… → Read More
Fon, the Spanish startup that wants to bring free WiFi across the planet, just raised $9.5 million (six million Euros) in a C round led by Coral Capital Management. Also investing was British Telecom (which struck a distribution partnership with Fon last October), Google (a previous investor), investment bank Allen & Co., founder Martin Varsavsky (through his Jazzya holding company), and Joi… → Read More
FON (better known for building a WiFi community) launched Twitxr today through their FON Labs group. Basically, it’s Twitter but allows picture uploads when sending a message (which makes it particularly useful for camera phones). FON founder Martin Varsavsky announced the product on his blog. So, yeah, basically it’s a photoblog. You can easily set it up to automatically send your… → Read More
“Give to receive” is the mantra of a new initiative by Spanish startup Fon to bring “free” Wi-Fi to the residents of San Francisco’s Castro District. The plan is the same one tried by Fon elsewhere: the company gives people Wi-Fi routers to install in their homes with the understanding that they will use them to share some of their internet connection with other Fon… → Read More
Did anyone else get a free FON router a few months back? I did and it’s a piece of turd. Mine was constantly cutting in and out and the router started warping from the heat. I think it’s a dumb idea to share my Wi-Fi, but I’ll probably sing a different tune the next time I’m traveling and need a hotspot to mooch off of. Today FON have teamed up with British Telecom to cover all the UK with… → Read More
On closer inspection, today’s deal between Fon and British Telecom sounds like it could be a costly one for Fon and its investors. GigaOm is suggesting that Fon may have agreed to pay $8 to $10 to BT for every one of its broadband customers who agrees to sign up and activate the Fon service. If that’s true, with three million broadband subs at BT, that represents a potential liability… → Read More
Spanish WiFi startup Fon is invading England. In its quest to turn everyone’s home and business WiFi router into a worldwide network of shareable hotspots, Fon just inked a long-rumored deal with British Telecom. BT’s three million broadband customers in the UK can now opt to join the Fon network, which gives them access to 190,000 WiFi hotspots around the world. BT joins Time Warner… → Read More
This is simple really: FON lets you share your wireless Internet connection with FON community members (called Foneros) and in return you get to hop on any other member’s wireless connection free of charge, anywhere in the world. The La Fonera is the specially designed $39.95 Wi-Fi access point that lets you securely share your wireless connection. The $19.95 Lafontenna is a directional… → Read More
Rumor becomes reality. Straight outta Madrid, Spain comes word that Time Warner Cable has inked a deal with Wi-Fi community FON allowing TWC subscribers to become FON community members and create FON access points with their home or business broadband connection. If you’re not familiar with FON, the idea is that you share your Wi-Fi with other community members and in return you can use… → Read More
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