Notición de FON USA: Acuerdo con Time Warner Cable

Luego de varios meses de negociaciones, tengo el gusto de poder anunciar que FON llegó a un acuerdo con Time Warner Cable, la segunda empresa de cable más grande de USA. Este es un acuerdo muy importante para FON, ya que al principio el mercado americano nos resultó muy difícil de conquistar, pero ahora ya somos la comunidad WiFi más grande de USA con más de 60 mil usuarios registrados y más de 20 mil activos, gracias a acciones como las que realizamos con Om Malik y con los foneros que viven frente a un Starbucks.

El acuerdo con TWC permitirá a sus 6.6 millones de usuarios de Internet convertirse en foneros. Ellos compartirán el excedente de ancho de banda en sus casas u oficinas y tendrán derecho a hacer roaming en todo el mundo.

Aprovecho para agradecer a Joanna Rees, líder fonera en USA, por el estupendo trabajo que ha realizado para sellar esta alianza.

Time Warner Cable Partners With FON for WiFi Network
Partnership Enables Free WiFi Access Away from Home for Time Warner Cable Subscribers

MADRID, Spain — April 23, 2007 — FON today announced a partnership with Time Warner Cable which allows Time Warner Cable broadband subscribers to access the world’s largest and fastest-growing WiFi network. The partnership specifically allows Time Warner Cable subscribers to become FON community members and create FON access points via their home or business broadband connection. Furthermore, the same subscribers would enjoy free WiFi access around the world, wherever FON has partner ISPs.

With nearly 60,000 FON community members in the U.S. alone, FON is the largest WiFi network in the United States. Hotspot providers are FON community members (called Foneros) who share their unused bandwidth via a FON router in exchange for free WiFi access when roaming through any other FON access point. Through this partnership, Time Warner Cable subscribers will have the opportunity to be members of the FON community and enjoy free unlimited WiFi access at any of FON’s partner ISP WiFi hotspots.

Time Warner Cable is an American cable television company that currently operates in 33 states, with 13.4 million basic cable subscribers and 6.6 million residential high-speed data subscribers. By partnering with FON, Time Warner Cable subscribers will benefit from being able to use next generation WiFi devices such as WiFi phones, game consoles and MP3 players, both inside and outside the home.

La Fonera router is secure out-of-the-box and offers two distinct WiFi channels. One channel is for the exclusive use of its owner; the second channel is shared with other Foneros. The La Fonera increases security through an encrypted private network and Foneros decide how much bandwidth to share. Public users cannot access the private network and there is no anonymous usage.

“We are pleased to welcome Time Warner Cable subscribers to the global FON community,” said Joanna Rees, CEO of FON U.S. “Success for FON depends on extending Internet access to our user bases outside the home or office without requiring individuals to rely on costly and problematic remote access solutions.”

About FON
FON is building the world’s largest WiFi community. Founded in 2006 in Madrid, Spain, FON’s mission is to stimulate growth of WiFi Internet access through its WiFi sharing community of «Foneros». FON’s La Fonera WiFi routers, have been specifically designed to enable Foneros to share their home access points with the FON Community. In return for sharing, Foneros gain free WiFi access everywhere in the world. FON’s investors include Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital. For more information, please go to www.fon.com.

Con este acuerdo ya tenemos socios en el mundo de las telecos en muchos paises claves. ¿Para cuándo en España? Esperamos tener novedades pronto.