Time Warner, FON partner for free WiFi

Time Warner Cable partnered with Spanish-based WiFi company FON to offer its customers access to any of FON's 60,000 hotspots throughout the U.S. Time Warner appears to have adopted the mantra: "If you can't beat them. Join them." Remember all of the brouhaha surrounding Spanish WiFi operator FON and its plan to rely on subscribers to share their unused bandwidth via a FON router in exchange for free WiFi access on any other FON access point? The plan runs afoul to the policies of ISPs since subscribers are forbidden from sharing bandwidth. The partnership specifically allows Time Warner Cable subscribers to become FON community members and create FON access points via their home or
business broadband connection. Furthermore, the same subscribers would
enjoy free or low-cost WiFi access around the world, wherever FON has partner ISPs.

It's a smart move given the fact that cable and DSL providers are battling it out over price. Free WiFi becomes an attractive incentive.

For more about the partnership between Time Warner and FON:
- check out this release [1]

Related Articles:
- Google, Skype invest $21 million in FON [2]
- FON raises $13.1 million [3] for global hotspot network