FON Maps, based on Google maps, allow Foneros and others to easily locate FON Spots. FON Maps help make finding information about FON spots around the world easier, and offer detailed information and often personalised information about it. Maps offer Aliens and Foneros real time information about FON Spot activity, coverage and location around the world. Users can also download the FON Maps for their GPS system.

FON (FON Wireless Ltd.) is a company that runs a system of shared wireless networks. It began in November 2005.^[1] FON’s members or “Foneros” are consumers who agree to share their WiFi with others, in return can freely access all other FON wireless access points. The company sells low-cost access to non-community members. FON’s La Fonera routers have been designed to enable Foneros to share their home WiFi access in a secure manner. La Fonera routers split the WiFi signal, creating a secure private channel to broadband internet for the user and a separate channel to share with fellow Foneros.

Foneros come in three varieties: Linuses, Bills and Aliens. Linuses and Bills are registered FON users who share bandwidth with other Foneros, whereas Aliens are registered FON users who do not share bandwidth but may access the FON Community by purchasing daily access passes (FON Passes). By installing the La Fonera WiFi Router, both Linuses and Bills share their WiFi and in return get easy WiFi at home and free WiFi roaming to all of the FON Spots throughout the FON Community. Using laptop computers or WiFi-enabled gadgets (telephones, cameras, game consoles, etc), Foneros are permitted to access any FON Spot around the world. Originally only Linuses were permitted to roam all of the FON Spots for free. As of June 2007, now Bills also receive free roaming privileges.^[6] Unlike a Linus, though, a Bill receives money from FON when Aliens purchase FON Passes that FON sells on the Bill’s FON Spot. Thus, Bills receive a bit of money from the sale of FON Passes and also get free roaming. Any Linus can become a Bill by simply changing her profile in the FON User Zone and registering with PayPal.

FON (“FON Wireless Limited”) is a company incorporated and registered in the United Kingdom. FON, officially launched in February 2006. FON was created in Madrid, Spain by Martin Varsavsky where it headquarters most of its operations. FON also has subsidiaries and branch offices in the U.S.A, Spain, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. FON's investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures, and Sequoia Capital.^[2] In February 2006, FON announced that it had received $22 million in equity financing from Internet giants Google, Skype and from the venture capital firms Index Venture and Sequoia Capital. In its first year of business, FON said that it was the world’s largest WiFi community, surpassing T-Mobile in Germany, and with a substantial global presence. In March 2007, FON announced an additional $13 million in equity financing from new investors and current investors. Among the new investors disclosed, were the Japanese companies BB Excite, Digital Garage, and Tsukumo. On October 4, 2007, it was announced that British Telecom had also joined its roster of shareholders.^[3] FON is a business, but not a non-profit venture, even though one of its principal goals is to make the Internet affordable, ubiquitous, and accessible to all. For the time being, FON’s business model is based on the money that is generated from Aliens purchasing FON passes to access the Internet from FON’s user-generated Community. FON sells its WiFi products online. It often has special deals for active Foneros and promotional offers for new members.

On October 4, 2007, FON and British Telecom announced that they had jointly created the BT FON Community by flashing FON's software on all BT Total Broadband Wi-Fi routers in the U.K. ^[4] This new Wi-Fi community invites 3 million of BT Total Broadband customers to opt into the FON Service, share their Wi-Fi at home and roam all of the BT FON hotspots in the UK and the FON Spots everywhere else in the world. Foneros also have free access to all of the BT FON hotspots in the U.K. This announcement came days after FON and Neuf Cegetel launched the Neuf WiFi FON service whereby 600,000 Neuf WiFi boxes throughout France were flashed with FON software. Like BT FON, Neuf subscribers can also opt into FON to share and receive WiFi services.^[5]

FON is also collaborating with various cities, municipalities, and communities to build citizen generated WiFi access. Such initiatives include (but are not limited to) the City of Malaga (Spain), the Ajuntament de Lleida (Spain) and Blanquefort (France).

Originally FON began with a software download for compatible routers, in particular, Linksys routers. FON called these routers post the installation of FON’s software, “FON Social Routers”. This is custom firmwares based on OpenWrt. Fon started using the OpenWRT base as firmware base for Fon branded routers. The firmware has been customisied specifically for use in the FON Community, allowing Foneros to share their broadband connection and to connect to other FON Spots around the world. La Fonera firmware solves security problems by creating a private and a public network on the router. ^[7] The La Fonera protects the user’s connection with two separate type of SSID's.

Many Alternative firmwares have emerged for the La Fonera. Some such as; DD-WRT, and OpenWrt remove the public Service set identifier (SSID) fon_ap and are an entirely new firmware. Others such as FrancoFON and FREEWLAN leave the public Service set identifier fon_ap intact as well as offer additional features such as client bridge mode, Aircrack-ng, Kismet and support for other programs to be installed on the JFFS2 file system via a Package management system. ^{[9] [10]}

FON has also signed various agreements with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) around the world to actively promote the FON Service to their subscribers. Some of these ISPs include British Telecom (BT), Time Warner Cable, Neuf Cegetel, Interoute and Interlink. ^[11] Because not all ISPs allow their subscribers to share their broadband connections, FON requires its Foneros, prior to joining FON, to read their ISPs’ terms of use to make sure they are in fact allowed to share their connection. ^[12] To date, no ISP has publicly announced that they will actively penalise their subscribers who participate in the FON Community.