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Fon Wireless Ltd. is a for-profit company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom that provides wireless services. Fon was founded in Madrid, Spain, in 2006, by Martín Varsavsky. Today, the company is headquartered in Bilbao.[1][2]
Fon started out by building its Wi-Fi network through devices called "foneras". Members, whom the company called "Foneros", agreed to share a part of their bandwidth as a Wi-Fi signal, so that they could connect to other members' hotspots.[citation needed]
As the company evolved, it shifted its focus to working with mobile operators and telecommunication providers, and expanded from deploying residential Wi-Fi to providing access and technology to carriers and service providers. Fon claims to operate a network of over 20 million WiFi hotspots.[citation needed]
Originally, the company intended to create a network for Wi-Fi access wherever customers went. To become a Fon member, users had to buy a special router called “Fonera”. With this router, they agreed to share a part of their bandwidth as a second Wi-Fi signal, in exchange for the right to use other Fon members' hotspots. To achieve this, Fon operated a system of dual access wireless networks. In 2007, Fon's development model shifted to encompass ISPs, and it began to work on creating Wi-Fi community networks with British Telecom (BT) and SFR. [citation needed] In November 2007, Fon deployed its first Wi-Fi rollout and continued using this foundation with more telco partners in the years to come.[citation needed]
Since its initial involvement with ISPs, Fon continued to expand its network through partnerships with local Internet service providers in countries such as Germany, Greece, Japan, and Brazil among others. [citation needed]
In 2016 the company evolved to also include premium networks such as airports, hotels, convention centers, public spaces. [citation needed] Fon also has a technology to allow providers to deliver services to their own customers. [citation needed]
In 2020, Deutsche Telekom announced that it would be discontinuing its hotspot sharing service, citing the discontinuation of Fon's service, which had been the underlying platform for the product.[5]
In the following three years, all partnerships (for "Fon Wi-Fi Community") were terminated. [citation needed]
Fon initially operated with a software that could be downloaded for compatible routers, mainly Linksys routers. The firmware for this service was based on OpenWrt. The firmware had been customized specifically for use in the Fon Community, allowing consumers to share their broadband connection and to connect to other Fon Spots around the world. [citation needed]
Fon firmware creates two different Wi-Fi signals: one private and one public.[6]
Private ('MYPLACE'): encrypted and intended for the owner's private use. Only the Fon Spot owner can access the internal network, computers and files.[citation needed]
Public ('FON_FREE_INTERNET'): un-encrypted or open, but username and password protected so allowing only registered Fon users to access the Fon Wi-Fi community network, but they cannot access the consumer's private network.
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).[7]
The 'Fonera Business' takes 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]
Since 2020, most Fon partnerships had ended or entered a terminating phase.
Partners integrate FON-Wifi in the firmware of the existing customer routers (CPE). Only a few partners sold "Fonera" routers, but with their own company login credentials.
2008: Awarded “Most Innovative Wireless Broadband Company” for its partnership with BT at the Wireless Broadband Innovation Awards 2008.
2013: “Best Next Generation Wi-Fi Device/ Application Award” at the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA)’s WiFi Industry Awards 2013 for the new “Fonera: a social WiFi router”.
2014: “Best WiFi Innovation Service”[42] at the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA)’s WiFi Industry Awards 2014 for the Wifi Music-Player "Gramofon".
2014: First European operator to be certified with as a “Premier” participant, the highest level of the Wireless Broadband Alliance's Interoperability Compliance Program (ICP).
Eduroam, a similar partnership between universities around the world. Eduroam allows students and staff from participating institutions to connect to hotspots at other participating colleges and universities.
^"Telekom schafft WLAN To Go im Heimrouter ab" [German Telekom discontinue "wlan to go" in residential routers] (in German). 2020-11-20. Retrieved 2021-01-19. "Unser Partner Fon wird den Service perspektivisch einstellen, sagt ein Telekom Sprecher [In long-term view our partner Fon will shut down their service, said a speaker from the german "Deutsche Telekom".]
^"Oi Wifi Fon". portaldeplanos.com.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-09-02. O serviço antes conhecido como Oi Wi-Fi Fon foi descontinuado. [The service formerly known as Qi Wi-Fi Fon has been discontinued.], this Quote was added in year 2022 (source: compare with last version from webarchiv); "Oi Wifi Fon". oiplano.com.br (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2024-09-02. O Oi WiFi Fon [...] não está mais disponível. [Oi WiFi Fon [...] is no longer available.], this Quote was added in year 2024 (source: compare with last version from webarchiv)
^"How to surf on a hotspot?". Proximus.be. Archived from the original on 20 January 2019. Retrieved 19 January 2019. discontinue the cooperation with our international partner FON [...] Discontinuation of Wi-Fi hotspots abroad from 01/01/2019
^FON said: Fonera router are not produced since 2015. Currently (year 2024) no information about FON, on there Website. Only an old AGB for Hotspot FON (file-date 2015) and an ADSL Apply-form (file-date 2019), which still offers a Fonera-Router.
^"Σταδιακή κατάργηση cosmote wifi fon" [Phasing out cosmote wifi fon]. ADSLgr.com Community Forum. 2022-03-29. Retrieved 2024-08-20. Μετά από τηλεφωνική επικοινωνία με την υποστήριξη της κοσμοτέ, μου ανακοίνωσαν πως την κλείνουν αυτή την υπηρεσία σιγά σιγά [After a phone call to the support of κοσmote, they told me that they are slowly closing this service.] ; New residential router does not have FON-function."Which router equipment is compatible with COSMOTE WiFi?". Retrieved 2024-08-20.
^"fin - Descomercialización WiFi" [End WiFi decommercialisation]. vodafonewifi.es (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2024-08-20."Vodafone WiFi cierra definitivamente: adiós a _AUTO_ONOWiFi y _ONOWIFI [ Vodafone WiFi y ONO WiFi ]" [Vodafone WiFi closes for good: goodbye to _AUTO_ONOWiFi and _ONOWIFI [ Vodafone WiFi & ONO WiFi ]]. adslzone.net (in Spanish). 2018-03-09. Retrieved 2024-08-20. Vodafone WiFi cierra definitivamente a partir del próximo 31 de marzo en un proceso progresivo que ya está siendo comunicado a los clientes. [Vodafone WiFi will close definitively as of 31 March in a progressive process that is being process that is already being communicated to customers.]
