TopCoder Q4 (Tech Musing #2) - Fon

Fon is a global WiFi network. https://fon.com/ It was founded in Madrid 10 years ago. It asks people to give other people free access to their home WiFi network, and they will get free WiFi at any of the 18,789,989 Fon Spots around the world. People become Foneros if they agree to share their bandwidth with others, and  they can download the Fon App to their smart devices. After users set up their accounts, their devices will automatically connect to other Fon Spots when they go out. For nonmembers, people can just buy hourly pass, day pass, or monthly pass as they need.

Fon solves the problem of lack of WiFi network or expensive roaming while traveling. It is not very popular in the U.S., but It has almost full coverage in some European countries, such as France, Netherlands, and Luxembourg. It also has 950,000 Fon Spots available in Japan, which means that Foneros can enjoy free WiFi almost everywhere in Japan. 

I personally love this idea because WiFi is really a technology that makes life easier, but I probably will not become a Fon user. I use WiFi a lot, but as a MIS student, I have learned a lot about information security. I don't want to share my network with strangers or connect to unknown WiFi network because I know people with ability can easily steal my personal information or any data stored in my devices through the network.