Fon Opens its WiFi Network in Japan for all to use

Fon's WiFi network is the largest in Japan. We have over a million hotspots of which over half are on at the moment. The Fon network is free to those who share WiFi (known as Foneros) and other users pay. Given the current emergency in Japan, and the failure of some mobile network as a result of the earthquake, Fon has decided to open our network to all in Japan. The software changes required are being worked on at our headquarters in Madrid and will be ready in an estimated 3 hours or around 6pm Spanish time. Japan is 7 hours ahead of us so it will be around 1am in Japan when all of our hotspots are open to the general public. We hope those stranded or in need find the Fon network useful in this time of need. We also encourage owners of Fon WiFi routers who may not have their Fon WiFi routers (Foneras) connected to connect them to help anyone who may need connectivity. All this is being done in collaboration with our friends at Softbank who currently distribute Foneras in Japan together with every iPhone and other smartphones. On behalf of Fon I would like to send our condolences to the families of those who died in this sad tragedy and wish all in Japan a quick recovery from this natural disaster. Fon's network will be open until the emergency is over.

Update: the work is done in Madrid, the Fon network is now open all over Japan and will remain open until the emergency is over.

 

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Comments

[fairwayhill]

02:42 PM on 03/11/2011

Why use Fon? I always have my WiFi router open for everyone to use openly and for free, and I've never had a problem.

[Martin Varsavsky]

07:57 PM on 03/13/2011

Fon is a safe way of sharing WiFi. People have access to the internet but not everything that goes on inside your network. Also with Fon you get a username and password when you share and you can acces over 3 million routers around the world. Not everyone is as generous and you, others like a quid pro quo situation, you share and I share :) In Japan we temporarily interrupted the rules of Fon and made half a million hotspots opened to all during the emergency. We normally make money with those who don't share but for now we felt easy communications is what matters most.

[Primadonna]

12:27 PM on 03/11/2011

This is what a decent company can do in a time of need ...

[jtraveler]

12:00 PM on 03/11/2011

Bravo! Imagine: a corporation putting people first. Would that our corporations would do the same.....