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Free & Cheap Wi-Fi for Everyone with FON

by Tim Stevens on April 24, 2007 at 04:05 PM

If you have a Wi-Fi-enabled laptop or device, chances are you occasionally get online through hotspots at airports and hotels. Chances are also good that you've seen some pretty high prices. A company called FON hopes to change that by bringing cheap public Wi-Fi to everyone. Thanks to a new deal with Time Warner, it just may succeed.

With FON, the idea is simple: Basically, you buy a FON wireless router from FON for $39.95, which you plug into your broadband connection. The router splits the Wi-Fi network in two: One is secure for your use only, and one is public that anyone within range can use.

Why would you want to share? Well, if you travel a lot or like to use Wi-Fi somewhere besides your home, you (as a FON member) get free access to any other FON member's Wi-Fi hotspot. Right now, the service is huge in Europe, but only has about 60,000 members in the U.S. The Time Warner deal, which will include the FON service built-in to select routers, should up the number of FON hotspots in this country significantly. What's more, you can rest easy knowing you won't get kicked off of your service, since many broadband providers frown upon the practice of blasting your Wi-Fi connection out to the public on purpose for anyone to use.

The good news is you don't have to be a FON member to use the hotspots -- non-members can connect to FON hotspots for just $2 or $3 a day.

It seems that Wi-Fi hotspots are never around when you need them, so here's hoping the FON deal with Time Warner is just the first of many similar deals here in the U.S.


From USA Today

Tags: Fon, Hotspot, Time Warner, TimeWarner, WiFi

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