FON Japan has helped Panasonic to FON-enable its latest Skype WiFi phone set, making it possible for its users to easily connect to any FON Spot and call for free or very low rates using Skype.

The phone is on sale in Japan and comes with a WiFi router to use at home. But what is more interesting for Foneros is that it can be conveniently used as a Skype phone even outside your home as it automatically connects to any FON signal when one is detected. Users enter their FON login and password during the initial configuration and the phone will store them to easily connect to any FON Spot.

Foneros living in Tokyo, where we recently reached 80% coverage, should be particularly interested as the combination of this nice WiFi device and FON could help them save a lot when calling outside of their homes. Bring your Skype phone with you and make free calls connecting to any FON Spot in Tokyo, including 2.200 Livedoor access points in great locations.

FON has been very successful in Japan. We launched only 14 months ago and have already the largest WiFi network in Japan with more than 31,000 FON Spots. The Japanese people are very civic minded and understand and love the concept of WiFi everywhere, free for donors and extremely affordable for everyone else. Japan is one of the most modern societies in the world and for the Japanese having WiFi everywhere is extremely useful as more and more gadgets now, including many made by large Japanese firms such as Nintendo and Sony, are WiFi enabled.

Now one of the criticisms that we had received in Japan is that FON was large and growing fast but still not in all the commercial areas where most people work. Well we at Fon listened carefully to this criticism and I am glad today that we have found a solution to this problem by teaming up with the commercial hotspot operation of Livedoor. Livedoor operates a WiFi network of 2,200 Access Points in the centre of Tokyo which in pure numbers adds little to our network but the key with Livedoor is not so much the amount of hotspots they have but how well placed they are. While we have not tested this yet it is likely that the combination of the FON Spots and the Livedoor hotspots that will send out a FON WiFi network that will be freely accessible to all foneros from anywhere in Japan and the world will give over 80% coverage in Tokyo.

Livedoor will FON-enable all their 2,200 APs in Tokyo, giving Foneros full internet access via these APs by using their FON ID and password – just like with any other FON Spot. Access to FON_livedoor will be free for Foneros at least until August 4, 2008. About 100 FON_livedoor APs will be accessible from today, and all 2,200 APs will become FON-enabled by February 11th. Have a look at our FON Maps to get a feel of how vast our joint FON / FON-Livedoor network is in Japan. I am sure that next time you visit Tokyo, you will have no difficulty finding a FON signal. At this point FON’s coverage is the greatest in two key economies in the world, the UK thanks to BTFon and in Japan.

Moreover, to celebrate this new partnership with Livedoor, FON will launch a 60-day “Free Access Campaign”: we’ll offer to all FON members, including Aliens, free access to all FON Spots and FON_livedoor Spots in Japan. We think it is time that all visitors to Japan and Japanese people get an opportunity to test Fon for free. If you live in Japan and you would like to have this free access extend beyond 60 days we recommend that you visit a Tsukumo shop or our own web site and acquire and install a La Fonera for only Y1980. That will be the only expenditure you will ever make with FON as with FON all donors have free WiFi wherever they are in the world.

Update: here is the first coverage from Japanese press

• アスキー
• Yahoo! ニュース
• IT Media
• CNET
• BroadBand Watch
• 新宿経済新聞
• インターネットウォッチ
• IT Pro
• NIKKEI NET
• 日経パソコン PC Online

Update: blogs and press from the rest of the world

• Alt1040
• Klamm.de
• CanardWiFi
• The Next Web
• Mike Sheetal
• LocalLab

FON is giving away 50 free eStarling WiFi picture frames to foneros who share their WiFi with the Community. Keep your La Fonera online, and on Valentine’s Day you’ll be eligible to win one of the WiFi Frames.

What I find very fonero about these frames is that your friend/loved ones can always feed pictures to you and you to them. If you share your WiFi with FON, you’ll have a chance to win a WiFi frame to share your photos!

The winners will be chosen randomly by an automatic system that on the 14th of February will classify those Foneras that had been kept online for the last thirty consecutive days.

FON will publish the winners’ names on fon.com from the 14th of February 2007. For more information check out the rules of the contest.

If you want to be sure to get one and you live in Spain or Germany, you can also buy the eStarling picture frame in our Fon Shop.

The eStarling WiFi picture frame allows you to:

• Create a email address dedicated to sending pictures directly to your picture Frame, even from your cell phone!
• Set up groups to instantly receive pictures from your friends and family’s email accounts and cell phones.
• Create your own picture playlists.
• Link the frame to your favorite photo album (Flickr, Picasa and others).

Wired has chosen Fon as one of the “Top 10 Startups Worth Watching in 2008“. 23andMe, founded by Anne Wojcicki (Sergei Brin’s wife) and Linda Avey and in which I have invested, also has been chosen by Wired.

During Christmas, if you live in Madrid or are going to visit the city, you will be able to buy a Fonera for 9€. In our Chueca shop we do lots of things, such as managing the project’s operations, assisting Chueca inhabitants and businesses who decide to join Chuecawifi, answering all sorts of medias who ask about the project and soon be coordinating the roll out of FON in other neighborhoods close to Chueca.

Starting today and during next Christmas you will get a Fonera for 9€ if you’ll visit our shop. We are in Calle Libertard n. 17. Bring your laptop or any other WiFi gadget and enjoy the FON experience around the whole neighborhood. In the map you’ll find all the many FONspots available.

This TV clip on Fon explains what we do reasonably well. The person interviewed is Joanna Rees, our fonera leader in the States aka USA.

Good news for our foneros in Hong Kong: McDonald’s and Starbucks outlets, shopping malls like IFC and Times Square and numerous other restaurant and bars throughout Hong Kong, Kowloon, New territories and the Outlying Islands are now public FONspots!

You can search for these hotspots using the Hong Kong Public Hotspot Finder or our new Fon Maps.

Last week we announced our initiative to cover one of Rome’s most beautiful neighborhoods, Trastevere, with FON WiFi signal. Bars, restaurants and shops will be given free Foneras to share their Internet connection.

People will be able to connect very easily with any WiFi laptop or gadget and registered FON users will surf for free. More infos (in Italian) at trasteverewifi.com.

We already had a great success covering 95% of Chueca, Madrid´s gay neighborhood and probably one of the most beautiful in the city. We will soon bring these initiatives to the most cool neighborhoods in Munich, Paris and Berlin.