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Fon Wireless

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Fon
Company typePrivate
IndustryComputer hardware
Wi-Fi service
Founded2006
FounderMartín Varsavsky
Headquarters
Alcobendas, Community of Madrid
,
Spain
Key people
Alex Puregger, CEO
ProductsWi-Fi technology and Access
Number of employees
150
Websitefon.com
The entrance to Fon's bright HQ in Madrid
Fon's HQ in Madrid
Fon's CEO Alex Puregger
Fon's CEO Alex Puregger
Countries where FON operates

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 where it headquarters most of its operations.[1]

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.

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 20,000,000 WiFi hotspots.

In April 2021 Fon was sold by a TV-Streaming-Technology Company, called "Agile Content" from Barcelona.[2]

Company

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Subsidiaries and Investors

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Fon has subsidiaries and branch offices in the United States, UK, Japan and formerly shortly in a few other countrys. Its investors include Atomico Ventures, Google, Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Skype, followed by Qualcomm Ventures, Coral Group and Telecom Partners: BT Group and Deutsche Telekom (old investor: ebay).[3]

Early years

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The original idea of the company was 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 members' Fon 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 Wifi community networks with British Telecom (BT) and SFR. In November 2007, Fon deployed its first wifi rollout, and continued using this foundation with more telco partners in the years to come.

Middle years

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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. At the same time the company has continued to expand its product portfolio as technology developed.

2016

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In 2016 the company evolved to include premium networks such as airports, hotels, convention centers, public spaces, etc. in addition to residential networks. Fon also has a technology portfolio called to allow service providers to deliver services to their own customers.

Fading out "Fon Wifi Community"

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"The Fon Service will be discontinued, in long term view", said a partner in year 2020.[4] In the following three years, seeming all partnerships (for "Fon Wifi Community") ended or are fading out.

At least most self-sold hardware routers (“Fonera”) for the "Fon Wifi Community" are EOL and turned off there FON Wifi signal.

Hardware and firmware

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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 firmware creates two different Wi-Fi signals: one private and one public.[5]

  • 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).[6]

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.[7]

In early 2018, the Online-Shop closed: "manufacture and sale of Foneras has been discontinued".[8]

Partnerships and collaborations

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Fon claims to have the largest Wi-Fi network in the world, with over 20 million hotspots as at June 2016.[9][10]

Partner for global "Fon Wifi Community"

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Since year 2020 mostly all of this partnerships ended or are fading out.

Most partners integrate FON-Wifi in the firmware of the existing customer routers (CPE). Only a few partners sold "Fonera" routers, but with there own company login credentials.

Partnerships for FON Wifi-Community Network
Country Company Begin End Notes
UK BT Group
(formerly known as British Telecom)		 04.10.2007 2020 Continues with its own local Wifi sharing initiative "EE WiFi" (formerly "BTwifi") ;
Critic: no communication about end of service
France SFR
(formerly known as Neuf Cegetel)		 2007[11] 1.5.2023[12]
Portugal NOS
(formerly known as ZON)		 2008 11.03.2020 [13] Continues with its own local Wifi sharing initiative "NOS_Wi-Fi", until 13.08.2021[14]
Japan SoftBank 01.02.2021[15] sold Fonera devices. ;
Since 2010: free "Fonera"-Router for every sold Smartphone
Brazil Oi 31.10.2011[16] at least 2022[17]
Belgium Proximus
(formerly known as Belgacom)		 11.2011[18] 2018[19] Continues with its own local Wifi sharing initiative [20]
Poland Netia 28.02.2012[21] 2018[22]
the Netherlands KPN 2014[23] 1.8.2020.[24]
Germany Deutsche Telekom (DT) 06.03.2013[25] >2021[26]
Croatia Hrvatski Telekom (HT) (subsidiary of DT) Spring 2013[27] fading out?[28] sold Fonera device[29]
Greece Cosmote (subsidiary of DT) February 2014 [30] slowly
closing[31]
Romania formerly Telekom Romania (formerly subsidiary of DT) 02.07.2014
Hungary Magyar Telekom (subsidiary of DT) 5.4.2016[32] 01.09.2020 [33] (the 17th country that join the Fon network)
South Africa MWEB ADSL February 2014[34] 2018[35]
Australia Telstra 20.05.2014[36]
launch: 30.06.2015		 13.03.2021[37]
Spain Vodafone 22.04.2015[38] 31.03.2018[39]
Italy Vodafone 22.04.2015[38] 01.04.2023[40]
and other outdated...
Telstra WiFi Hotspot located on a public telephone in Sydney

Awards and recognition

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  • 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”[41] 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).

See also

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  • Express Wi-Fi
  • Guifi.net
  • Meraki
  • 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.

References

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  1. ^ "Fon Company Profile | Management and Employees List". Datanyze. Retrieved 2023-03-28.
  2. ^ "Agile Content acquires Fon to boost TV technology offer". CSI Magazine. 2021-04-19. Retrieved 2024-08-12.
  3. ^ "Wi-Fi sharing about to get investment". cnn. 2006-02-06. Retrieved 2024-09-02. "Who we are". Fon. Archived from the original on 2014-03-31. Retrieved 2024-09-02."Building a WiFi community network since 2006 (see: investor Logos)". 2016-11-10. Archived from the original on 2016-11-06. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  4. ^ "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 shutdown there service, said a speaker from the german "Deutsche Telekom".]
  5. ^ "Fon - The Global WiFi Network providing WiFi access through hotspots". Fon. Archived from the original on 17 November 2012. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  6. ^ "Geolocalization - Fon". Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  7. ^ https://shop.fon.com/en/products/business-wifi[permanent dead link]
  8. ^ ""manufacture and sale of Foneras has been discontinued" ; I have an old Fonera. Where can I find support documentation?". Archived from the original on 2019-01-02. Retrieved 2019-01-01.
  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. ^ "Automatic Access to Fon WiFi Hotspots for SFR customers". Fon. 2013-07-12. Retrieved 2016-10-18. "All Broadband Customers of Leading French Telco SFR to Get Automatic Access to Fon International WiFi Hotspots Service". businesswire.com. 2013-07-10. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  12. ^ "SFR WiFi FON". actuneuf.com (in French). 2024-07-17. Retrieved 2024-08-20.}}
  13. ^ "NOS Wi-Fi (see footnote)" (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2020-04-11. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  14. ^ "NOS Wi-Fi". NOS (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2021-08-03. Retrieved 2024-08-20. "[Descontinuado] Alterações NOS Wi-Fi" [[Discontinued] Changes to NOS Wi-Fi]. NOS (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 2021-10-20. Retrieved 22 September 2021.
  15. ^ "kyanpe-n de haifu hanbaishiteita seihin no sapo-to shuuryou oyobi, komyunithi- WiFi no shuuryou no oshirase - fuxon Japan : sekai saidaikyuu no Wi - Fi sa-bisu purobaida-" キャンペーンで配布・販売していた製品の サポート終了および、コミュニティーWiFiの終了のお知らせ - フォン・ジャパン: 世界最大級のWi-Fiサービスプロバイダー [Notice of termination of support for products distributed and sold in the campaign and termination of Community WiFi]. Fon JP (in Japanese). 2020-10-30. Retrieved 2024-08-20. hoshu sapo-to shuuryou ni tomonai, kaki kisai no komyunithi- WiFi mo junzi toma nami itashimasu. ... 2021 nen 2 tsuki 1 nichi ikou junzi 保守サポート終了に伴い、下記記載のコミュニティーWiFiも順次停波いたします。 [...] 2021年2月1日以降順次 [With the end of maintenance support, the community WiFi described below will also be stopped sequentially [...] After 2021/2/1] ;
    "Sofutobanku ga teikyousuru Fon ru-ta- wo shiyoushite Wi - Fi wo riyousuru" ソフトバンクが提供するFONルーターを使用してWi-Fiを利用する [Using a FON router provided by SoftBank to use Wi-Fi]. softbank.jp (in Japanese). Retrieved 2024-08-20. komyunithi sa-bisu Fon FREE INTERNET FON FREE EAP ha, 2021 nen 2 tsuki 1 nichi tsuki ni shuuryoushimashita. コミュニティサービス（FON FREE INTERNET / FON FREE EAP）は、2021年2月1日（月）に終了しました。 [community service (FON free internet / FON free EAP) ended IN 2021/2/1 (Mon).]
  16. ^ "Oi Releases Shared WiFi Project in Partnership with Fon". Fon. 2011-10-31. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  17. ^ "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)
  18. ^ "Our partner Belgacom is now Proximus - Fon". Fon. 2014-09-29. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  19. ^ "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
  20. ^ "How to surf on a Public Wi-Fi hotspot? - Proximus". proximus.be. Retrieved 2024-08-20."How to surf on a Public Wi-Fi hotspot? - Proximus (direct access to info)". proximus.be. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  21. ^ "Fon and Netia Announce WiFi Partnership in Poland". Fon. 2012-02-28. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  22. ^ "Service in Belgium and Poland". Fon. 2019-01-24. Retrieved 2020-03-09.
  23. ^ "KPN and Fon Roll Out WiFi Network In The Netherlands". Fon. 2014-07-04. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  24. ^ "KPN ends Fon Hotspots In The Netherlands". KPN (in Dutch). 2020-04-01. Archived from the original on 2020-04-13.
  25. ^ "Telekom-Fon network is now being deployed in Germany! - Fon". Fon. 2013-06-03. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  26. ^ "WLAN TO GO - Kosten, Anmeldung, Sicherheit - Telekom". telekom.de. Archived from the original on 2021-01-20. Retrieved 2021-03-23. "AW: Das Ende von WLAN-To-GO" [AW: The End of WLAN-TO-GO]. telekom.de (in German). 2 December 2020. Archived from the original on 2021-01-20.
  27. ^ "Fon and DT's Croatian Telecom Launch Co-Branded Extension to the World's Largest Crowdsourced WiFi Network". netocratic.com. 2013-02-05. Retrieved 2024-09-02."Press-Details - Hrvatski Telekom d.d." t.ht.hr. 2013-02-05. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ "HotSpot Fon ponuda" [HotSpot Fon device]. hrvatskitelekom.ht. Archived from the original on 2015-03-25. Retrieved 2024-09-02.
  30. ^ "Fon, OTE Rolls Out a Crowdsourced WiFi Network in Greece". Fon. 2014-12-04. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  31. ^ "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.
  32. ^ "Fon Partners with Telekom to Launch Free-of-Charge WiFi Service to the World's Largest WiFi Network - Fon". Fon. 2016-04-05. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  33. ^ "Igénybe tudom venni a Telekom Wi-Fi FON szolgáltatást?". telekom.hu (in Hungarian). Archived from the original on 2022-02-05. Retrieved 2021-08-21.
  34. ^ "MWEB and Fon to build South Africa's largest WiFi network". Fon. 2014-01-16. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  35. ^ "Mweb's Fon network is dead – MyBroadband". mybroadband.co.za. 2024-05-13. Retrieved 2024-08-20.}}
  36. ^ "Telstra and Fon Start Rolling Out Telstra Air". Fon. 2015-06-26. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  37. ^ "Telstra Air / Fon - still a thing?". Forum whirlpool.net.au. Retrieved 2024-08-20. "Back to Square one with trying to deactivate Telst... - Telstra CrowdSupport - 940018". crowdsupport.telstra.com.au. Archived from the original on 2021-09-25. Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  38. ^ a b "Vodafone Spain and Italy will join Fon's global WiFi network". Fon. 2015-04-22. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
  39. ^ "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.]
  40. ^ "Vodafone Wi-Fi Community". vodafone.it (in Italian). Retrieved 2024-08-20.
  41. ^ "Gramofon wins "Best WiFi Innovation Service" award - Fon". Fon. 2014-10-13. Retrieved 2016-10-18.
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