La Fonera Social Routers, which are available for $ 5 to those who join the community, have a specific software installed that enables Foneros to share their home access points with the FON community, and in return, gain free access when traveling.
"San Francisco doesn't have to wait for complicated, expensive new Wi-Fi networks," said Joanna Rees, chairman of U.S. operations for FON. "With FON's Wi-Fi-sharing model, we can really build a city-wide Wi-Fi community today, by getting FON wireless routers in every neighborhood across San Francisco."
Those who receive the free routers at the Freedom Friday event, will "promise" to share their access with others in their community, in return for free Wi-Fi at all FON access points around the globe.
FON intends to host similar events in major cities across the U.S. in the coming year. New York will be the next community FON will target to Wi-Fi enable with its FON routers.
The La Fonera router is designed to be truly "plug and play," according to a FON statement. Users simply plug the router into their existing broadband modem to convert their connection into a FON access point and to provide private secure Wi-Fi. FON will have technical staff on hand at the event to walk through exactly how to get the router set up at home. In exchange for the free router, FON will ask those who receive it to make every effort to get it up and running and share their access, in order to grow the FON Wi-Fi community in San Francisco.
FON was founded earlier this year in Madrid, Spain, with more than $20 million in funding from Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. There are already more than 100,000 routers registered "Foneros" (members of the FON community) around the world. FON is now initiating full blown efforts to build the U.S. base of Foneros.
For more information on the Freedom Friday event, go to www.fon.com/sanfrancisco.
