FON has management teams in the most developed countries in the world. FON is a global WiFi community that can only be built where there’s broadband, so FON operates in the countries where DSL/Cable/Fiber are most deployed.

Japan is the second largest broadband country in the world. Japan has only approx 2% of the world’s population, but 13% of the world’s broadband connections. But, because we are a Spanish company, we first started operating in Europe, then in the U.S. because of language affinity. Then , one year later we entered Japan.
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LLeida is now the second Spanish FON city after Malaga and there are more coming. Yesterday I had an announcement with the mayor that went very well. I have met with many mayors since I started FON but never with a mayor who was also a tech geek. Lleida’s mayor is the former CTO of Madrid and Barcelona and he teaches Computer Science at the local University. It was a pleasure to announce that he had already FON enabled 40 public buildings.

Our method? Very simple, we give La Foneras out for free to the City Administrations and citizens buy their own La Foneras. We also give La Foneras for free to underprivileged citizens.
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In this video, driving around Taipei, I talk about FON’s new R&D projects.

At Fon if you get a Fonera (our social, WiFi router that partitions WiFi networks creating a private and a public signal) and you keep it on, you can roam the world for free connected to other people´s Foneras. With this simple proposition Fon has created the largest WiFi network in the world by number of hotspots or by number of countries. Our formula protects those who share from viruses, it protects their privacy and it reserves most bandwidth for their own use so foneros feel safe. Fon also protects ISPs or Telcos from the leeching that now normally occurs when people who do not pay for broadband roam by connecting to other people´s open routers (Linksys and Netgear come open) so ISPs and telcos prefer Fon to open WiFi that leads to less broadband uptake and higher churn. So Foneros can roam the world for free feeling safe. ISPs in turn, allow Fon because even though in theory it may violate their terms and conditions in practice it makes them sell more broadband and reduce churn (with Fon customers who travel a lot don´t churn). But what happens if you are not a fonero and you find Fon WiFi signal?
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You can paint your home with this!

Is this the secret of the Fon Japan team?

Today Yuki Yamamura, the CEO of Excite, and I publicly announced in Tokyo that Excite Japan has invested in Fon. The announcement was very well received. Excite’s shares went up 17.4%. I am very pleased to see that not only the Japanese are adopting FON WiFi in great numbers but that the financial markets over here believe that to share a little WiFi at home and roaming the world for free is a valuable proposition as more and more WiFi only gadgets like the Nintendo DS, the Sony PSP and now the Sony Mylo hit the market. We are also very happy to be the first non Sony product selling in the Sony Style shops. As a Spanish company to be received so well in Japan, the most competitive technology market in the world, is extremely “exciting”.

Muchas gracias Japón!

At FON, we frequently meet with ISPs and it is no secret that we partnered with Neuf, so what I am going to say you can take with a grain of salt. Still I will say it. Neuf Cegetel is an amazing ISP. Even if you don’t understand French, you can probably understand their offers. In France also Free has a great choice. Neuf has a quadruple play for 29.90 euros. Flat rate fixed telephony with unlimited calling, internet up to 20 megs, TV with over 50 channels, a TIVO like machine, 9GB of storage, 1000 movies on demand and one of the most advanced WiFi/GSM mobile phones I have ever seen (among other things it plays WiFi TV). If you live in America, you can look at your ISP’s offers and weep.