Fon targets coffee shop Wi-Fi business with free router offer

Madrid, Spain-based “social router” company Fon is hoping to drum up some interest in its unique Wi-Fi business by going head-to-head with Starbucks and thousands of other coffee shops that sell wireless Internet access within their stores. Fon is offering free La Fonera Wi-Fi routers to anyone who lives within 150 feet of a coffee shop that sells wireless Internet access.
What’s the catch? Users who sign up for the free router must then sell access to their hot spot for $2 per day, splitting the revenues with Fon 50/50.
Users interested in the offering but who don’t live near a coffee shop can still purchase a router for $30.
The move is an attempt to undercut Wi-Fi access sales. For example, T-Mobile USA Inc. hot spots at Starbucks cost $6 for one hour of access, $10 for 24 hours of access or $20 for a month of access. T-Mobile USA is currently offering a 24-hour trial pass for free.
Fon, which is working to expand its operations in the United States, counts three types of Foneros, as the company calls its customers. A Linus is someone who shares his or her home Wi-Fi service with other users and in return gets free Wi-Fi at any Fon Access Point; an Alien doesn’t share their Wi-Fi and pays $3 per day to access other Fon hot spots; lastly, a Bill gets 50 percent of the money that an Aliens pays to access Bill’s hot spot.
The year-old company said it has 300,000 registered users with at least 30,000 in the United States. Google Inc. and Skype are both major backers of the service.