Europe

FON is a company that aims to make free Wi-Fi available around the world by building a grassroots network; by 2010 it hopes to have one million hotspots. The company was founded in Spain in February 2006 by Martin Varsavsky, a successful telecommunications entrepreneur. Shortly after, FON received funding from Google, Skype, and two well-know venture capital firms.

FON users agree to share one (home, business, etc.) internet connection, in exchange for free access to all other users’ connections around the world. This means that, while the cost of joining FON is free, users must pay for one local internet connection, and a FON router (about $50). The FON router helps make sharing an internet connection secure. Non-FON members can also connect to FON hotspots for a daily fee ($3), for which the FON member may receive 50% of net revenue.

While there has been concern that ISPs would forbid their users from using FON to share their connection, so far no ISP has publicly said they will penalize users for doing so. In fact, some ISPs, including Time Warner Cable, are partnering with FON.

Learn More:

FON
http://www.fon.com/en/

FON on del.icio.us and Wikipedia
http://del.icio.us/foneros
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FON

FON: Wi-Fi for Everyone. New Telephony. February 14, 2006.
http://www.newtelephony.com/news/62h14134813.html

Zuckerman, Ethan. FON, and why sharing WiFi’s a cool technology for Africa. February 5, 2006. http://ethanzuckerman.com/blog/?p=363

Wong, M., & Clement, A. (2007). Sharing Wireless Internet in Urban Neighborhoods. In Steinfeld, C., Pentland, B. T., Ackerman, M. & Contractor, N. (Eds.), Communities and Technologies 2007: Proceedings of the Third Communities and Technologies Conference. London: Springer-Verlag. www3.fis.utoronto.ca/iprp/cracin/publications/pdfs/WorkingPapers/CRACIN%20Working%20Paper%20No.%2019.pdf

International Network of E-Communities (INEC) (2006). INEC Declaration
on Open Networks. Stockholm, Sweden. November 2006.
www.oplan.org/documents/articles/inec-declaration-on-open-networks/fss_d...
The INEC Declaration on Open Networks lays out 10 principals for the
best-possible design of open broadband networks. The principles address
issues including: network ownership, the definition of “open”, the role
of government, network neutrality, and broadband speed. A number of
organizations, municipalities, and communities have signed on to these

Oram, Andy (2007). MuniWireless conference: city politicians need to understand the lay of the LAN. O’Reilly Emerging Telephony, June 4, 2007.

Ismail, Sherille and Irene Wu (2007). Broadband Internet Access in OECD
Countries: A Comparative Analysis. FCC Staff Report of the Office of
Strategic Planning and Policy Analysis and International Bureau,
October 2003.
http://www.coe.montana.edu/ee/rwolff/ee543%20papers/fcc-broadband.pdf

Salon: Why American Broadband is so Bad Compared to Broadband in the Leading Nations. Muniwireless.com, October 18, 2005. http://www.muniwireless.com/article/articleview/4871