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Time Warner, Fon in Wi-Fi joint deal

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From the Associated Press

In a big win for a little Wi-Fi start-up called Fon, Time Warner Cable Inc. will let its residential broadband customers turn their connections into public wireless hot spots, a practice shunned by most U.S. Internet service providers.

For Fon, which has forged similar agreements with Internet service providers across Europe, the deal will boost its credibility with U.S. consumers.

For Time Warner Cable, which has 6.6 million broadband subscribers, the move could help protect the company from an exodus as free or cheap municipal wireless service becomes more readily available.

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Fon was founded in Spain in 1995 on the premise that people shouldn’t have to pay twice -- once at home and again in a coffee shop -- for Internet access. At first, the company offered software that let its members, called Foneros, turn Wi-Fi, or wireless fidelity, routers into shared access points, but it took hours to get up and running.

In fall 2006, Fon, which counts Google Inc. and EBay Inc.’s Skype among its investors, started selling and sometimes giving away its own branded wireless router, called La Fonera. Since then, it has distributed about 370,000 of them worldwide.

La Fonera splits a Wi-Fi connection in two: an encrypted channel for the Fonero and a public one for nonmembers. Foneros can decide how much of their bandwidth to share with the public and can log on to any Fon router without charge.

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Aliens, as Fon nonmembers are called, can register on a Web page and pay $2 or $3 for 24 hours of access.

In the U.S., where it costs about $10 for a day pass to use a T-Mobile HotSpot at a Starbucks, Fon’s economics seem particularly appealing.

Joanna Rees, chief executive of Fon USA, said such rates at coffee shops, airports and hotels might work for a business person with an expense account but are too high for people who just want to quickly check e-mail, make a call on a Wi-Fi phone or play on a wireless video game device.

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Starbucks Corp. and T-Mobile USA Inc. representatives said that they provide a premium service and that customers see value in paying for speed, security and reliability.

Fon has about 60,000 Foneros in the U.S.

In the Time Warner deal expected to be announced today, Fon and the cable company would split the fee nonmembers would pay to use the hot spots. Rees said the two companies were working out details on how the partnership would be marketed. Time Warner spokeswoman Maureen Huff confirmed the deal but declined to discuss any details.

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