Yet another revolution in the way people use wireless, and this one launched with no organized PR – just word of mouth spread mainly through blogs. Proof once again of the enormous appetite we have to connect real-time, all-the-time and everywhere.
FON is an international network of members who operate or want to use wireless routers to provide (initially) free or (eventually) paid public wireless access under one umbrella organization. They’ve released firmware which so far operates only on Linksys’ open source firmware router, the WRT54G/GS. Thus far they are euro-centric, but the buzz is building. Gist:
In the first phase, FON will be limited to Linus registered users. Being Linus means that you are willing to give your internet access to other members of the FON community. A user registers, installs the software and shares its Access Point. In exchange for that, you can use every Access Point in the FON network for free.
Details here. All of this, of course, is expressly prohibited by the TOS of the Canadian consumer broadband ISP’s. The reaction of ISPs to this phenom will be … interesting.