written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . december 2013 learn how and when to remove this template message fon type private industry computer hardware wi fi service founded 2006 founder mart n varsavsky headquarters alcobendas community of madrid spain key people alex puregger ceo products wifi technical solutions wifi access number of employees 150 website fon.com fon wifi spots worldwide fon fon wireless ltd. is a global leader in enhancing wireless access . it is a for profit company incorporated and registered in the united kingdom . in 2006 it was created in madrid spain by mart n varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations . fon started out by building its wifi 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 . since then fon has shifted its focus to working with mobile operators and telcos . today the company has expanded from deploying residential wifi to providing wifi access and technology solutions to carriers and services providers . currently fon claims to operate a network of over 20 000 000 wifi hotspots worldwide . contents 1 company 1.1 early years 1.2 middle years 1.3 today 2 hardware and firmware 3 partnerships & collaborations 4 see also 5 references 6 external links company edit fon wireless ltd. is a for profit company incorporated and registered in the united kingdom . it was created in madrid spain by mart n varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations . fon also has subsidiaries and branch offices in the united states uk brazil france germany and japan . its investors include atomico ventures google index ventures sequoia capital and skype . 1 early years edit the original idea of fon was to create wifi network where users around the world would have wifi access wherever they went . to become a fon member users had to buy a special router called a fonera . with this router they agreed to share a part of their bandwidth as a second wifi 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 edit since its initial involvement with isps fon has continued to expand its wifi 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 wifi technology developed . today edit in 2016 the company has evolved to include premium networks such as airports hotels convention centers public spaces etc. in addition to residential wifi networks . the company also has a technology portfolio called fon solutions that is designed to allow service providers to deliver wifi services to their own customers . hardware and firmware edit 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 developed a number of their own products gramofon router with built in streaming client fonera simpl 2014 wireless router lacks the rp sma removable antenna connection of the original simpl below 2 fonera simpl wireless router fonera 2.0 n smart wifi router fonera 2.0 g smart wifi router fonera wireless router fonera wireless router fontenna wifi antenna fon firmware creates two different wi fi signals one private and one public . 3 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 can not 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 . 2 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 . 4 partnerships & collaborations edit fon claims to have the largest wi fi network in the world with over 20 million hotspots as at june 2016 . 5 6 see also edit guifi.net meraki references edit fon the global wifi network providing wifi access through hotspots . fon . retrieved 7 december 2015 . a b geolocalization fon . retrieved 7 december 2015 . fon the global wifi network providing wifi access through hotspots . fon . retrieved 7 december 2015 . https shop.fon.com en products business wifi fon announces next generation fonera simpl with eap optimized for mobile devices press release . fon . business wire . 26 february 2012 . fon blog to keep you updated about the wifi ecosystem . fon . retrieved 7 december 2015 . external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to fon . official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title fon company & oldid 741808560 categories wi fi providerscompanies of spaincustom 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