FON Totally Explained

Everything about Fon totally explained

FON (FON Wireless Ltd.) is a company that runs a system of shared wireless networks. The business was launched in November 2005.
People can become members (called “Foneros” by the company) by agreeing to let FON share their wireless internet connection. Members need to purchase a low-cost wireless router (called “La Fonera”), which acts as a public internet access point; the device also creates a private network that can be used by the owner only. FON members can use any other FON access points free of charge.
Customers who don't share their internet connection (called “Aliens”) can buy internet access from FON for a relatively low daily fee. The members whose access points are used by a paying customer receive part of the revenue.

Company

FON (“FON Wireless Limited”) is a for-profit company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom. FON, officially launched in February 2006. FON was created in Madrid, Spain by Martín Varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations. FON also has subsidiaries and branch offices in the U.S.A, Spain, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. FON's investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.
   In February 2006, FON announced that it had received $22 million in equity financing from Internet giants Google, Skype and from the venture capital firms Index Venture and Sequoia Capital. In its first year of business, FON said that it was the world’s largest WiFi community, surpassing T-Mobile in Germany, and with a substantial global presence.
In March 2007, FON announced an additional $13 million in equity financing from new investors and current investors. Among the new investors disclosed, were the Japanese companies BB Excite, Digital Garage, and Tsukumo. On October 4, 2007, it was announced that British Telecom had also joined its roster of shareholders.
   According to FON, the company's business model is based on selling internet access to non-members ("Aliens"). They try to attract customers by offering substantially cheaper access than traditional providers like T-Online that own the hotspots themselves. In an early interview, FON founder Varsavsky set a goal of 1 million user-run hotspots by 2010, creating considerable coverage.
   The business model depends on the goodwill of the Internet Service Providers, who may forbid connection sharing by their customers. For this reason, FON tries to reach agreements with service providers. FON maintains that it's sharing model is actually beneficial for service providers, since a typical broadband subscription is cheaper than permanently using FON as an "Alien".. There are also various promotions where Foneras are available for free; these are often aimed at creating hotspots near strategic locations, such as public spaces or cafes.

Collaborations

In order to expand their hotspot network, FON tries to establish collaborations with ISPs and other partners.

BT FON Community

On October 4, 2007, FON and British Telecom announced that they'd jointly created the BT FON Community by flashing FON's software on all BT Total Broadband Wi-Fi routers in the UK. This new Wi-Fi community invites 3 million of BT Total Broadband customers to opt into the FON Service, share their Wi-Fi at home and roam all of the BT FON hotspots in the UK and the FON Spots everywhere else in the world. As an incentive, BT FON members also receive free access to commercial BT Openzone wi-fi hotspots. Naturally other Foneros also have free access to all of the BT FON hotspots in the UK.

Neuf WiFi FON

The BT FON announcement came days after FON and Neuf Cegetel launched the Neuf WiFi FON service whereby 600,000 Neuf WiFi boxes throughout France were flashed with FON software. Like BT FON, Neuf subscribers can also opt into FON to share and receive WiFi services.

FON Cities

FON is also collaborating with various cities, municipalities, and communities to build citizen-generated WiFi access. Such initiatives include the City of Malaga (Spain), the Ajuntament de Lleida (Spain), Blanquefort (France), Tosca (Italy) and Oslo (Norway).

FON membership

Anyone can sign up to FON's service on the FON homepage. In order to share the internet connection (become a "Fonero"), the user has to acquire the "Fonera" router and install it as an access point, creating a "FON Spot". There is also a software called FonSpot that allows the user to create a FON Spot on a computer.
   Foneros who share their connection may use all other FON Spots free of charge. A Fonero also receives a part of the proceeds from the access passes that are sold through his own FON Spot.
   Payments to Foneros are made through PayPal; FON will pay into the user's PayPal account each time the Fonero has accumulated €30 (or $30) in earnings.
   Before June 2007 FON had a slightly different model where "Linuses" got free access to other FON Spots, but no money. "Bills", on the other hand, got money for the sharing but no free access to other FON Spots. FON has changed this to the current policy, where all members get both free access and part of the proceeds. Existing "Linus" users can easily change to the new model.

Paid access to FON Spots

A non member or “Alien” is anyone who connects to a FON Spot but doesn't share WiFi at home. An Alien may purchase daily access passes to use the FON network.
   Access passes can be bought directly from the access point's portal page; it's also possible to register with FON from that page. Passes can also be pre-purchased and used at a later date. In Spain it's also possible to buy Passes by sending a text message from a mobile phone.
   Once an Alien has registered with FON, they can use their FON username and password to access their own personal User Zone. In the User Zone, the Alien can retrace her WiFi activities through the FON Community. Including seeing how many FON Passes they've purchased, used and how many they still have remaining.
   Aliens can also get 15 minutes of free WiFi to any FON Spot by clicking on a FON promotional video. This is limited to one free 15 minute access per day, per user and device. Foneros can not disable the free 15 minute access period, for which they're paid $0.07.

Hardware

Originally FON began with a software download for compatible routers, in particular, Linksys routers. FON called these routers post the installation of FON’s software, “FON Social Routers”. This is custom firmwares 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 Foneros to share their broadband connection and to connect to other FON Spots around the world.
La Fonera firmware solves security problems by creating a private and a public network on the router. The La Fonera protects the user’s connection with two separate type of SSID's.

Private: one SSID is encrypted only for the user’s private use. Only users who use this can access the internal network, computers and files.
Public: a second one that requires web based Fon authentication and is for all other registered Foneros. With this only registered Foneros can access the FON Community, but can't access the router owner’s private network. Only Foneros have passwords that connect to this signal. The firmware and the routers are designed to download updates and configurations from the La Fonera website.

La Fonera WiFi Router

The FON router is called La Fonera, and is available for purchase online at the FON Shop.
In simple terms, a WiFi router is a hardware device that when connected to a broadband connection emits a signal that can be picked up by WiFi enabled personal computers, laptops, and other gadgets (telephones, MP3 players, digital cameras, and game consoles). This permits Internet users to access the Internet without the need for cables to connect their devices directly to the broadband line. As a result, the WiFi router is in reality an Internet “access point”.
The La Fonera router is designed and manufactured by Accton. It comes flashed with the custom FON firmware, which employs security measures to prevent any unauthorized firmware modification. The router includes one WAN Port and a wireless antenna. It doesn't provide a method to connect a PC to the router. It can be connected to an existing network router or directly to a cable or DSL modem.

La Fonera+

La Fonera+ has all of the La Fonera’s security and community features, but also incorporates new technology.
   The router's four coloured LEDs show Foneros the status of all of the router’s activities: whether it’s online, whether it's connected, or whether it's sharing WiFi with other Foneros. The La Fonera+ also comes with an additional Ethernet port. Thus it can be used for connecting to a desktop computer, creating a virtual network through the private FON signal (MyPlace) and share all of the user's information across them.
   Finally, the La Fonera+ comes with an additional internal antenna specially designed to work with the La Fontenna. It gives indoor coverage while the La Fontenna directs the WiFi signal towards other Foneros.
   Since it includes a switch, the La Fonera+ allows connecting to half-duplex hubs provided by some ISPs. Like the La Fonera which preceded it, the La Fonera+ has issues connecting to many Intel-based cards and Cisco Aironet cards. Adjustment of power-saving settings on the computer may occasionally have an effect.

La Fontenna

The La Fontenna is a directional antenna that boosts the WiFi signal of the La Fonera WiFi router by up to five times.

Alternative firmwares

The Fonera router uses a firmware based on the free OpenWRT, which is available under the GPL license. However, when buying a Fonera users have to agree to only use the device with the original firmware. The hardware also attempts to prevent the installation of "unauthorized" firmwares by using digital signatures, even though there are ways to circumvent the protection.
Despite this, many alternative firmwares have emerged for the La Fonera. Some, such as DD-WRT, and OpenWrt, remove the public Service set identifier (SSID) fon_ap and are an entirely new firmwares. Others, such as FrancoFON and FreeWLAN, leave the public service set identifier fon_ap intact as well as offer additional features such as client bridge mode, Aircrack-ng, Kismet and support for other programs to be installed on the JFFS2 file system via a package management system.

FON Maps

, based on Google maps, allow Foneros and others to easily locate FON Spots. FON Maps help make finding information about FON spots around the world easier, and offer detailed information and often personalised information about it. Maps offer Aliens and Foneros real time information about FON Spot activity, coverage and location around the world. Users can also download the FON Maps for their GPS system.

FON Labs

FON Labs is an initiative created by FON that currently offers beta applications and tools to simplify Internet use. FON Labs is located in Barcelona, Spain.

FON Get Simple converts long, impossible-to-remember URLs into short, easy-to-remember web-based bookmarks.

FON Uploader addresses one of the biggest drawbacks to Gmail. Gmail starts from scratch offering no way to import old emails to your new Gmail account. FON Uploader solves this problem by allowing users to import their old emails to their Gmail account.

FON Wit is a new tool that FON Labs is developing to allow users to chat and perform word searches at the same time. FON Wit is a Skype add on that will perform word searches when users pass the cursor over an unknown term that appears in the conversation.

FON SPOT for Mac and Linux is a software download that converts a Mac or Linux PC into a FON Spot allowing users to share WiFi with the FON Community wherever they take their PC.

FON and ISPs

FON has also signed various agreements with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world to actively promote the FON Service to their subscribers. Some of these ISPs include British Telecom (BT), Time Warner Cable, Neuf Cegetel, Interoute and Interlink.
Because not all ISPs allow their subscribers to share their broadband connections, FON requires its Foneros, prior to joining FON, to read their ISPs’ terms of use to make sure they're in fact allowed to share their connection.

Further Information

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