BT joins the FON

Great Britain's BT took a piece of FON, the user-shared WiFi community started by the eponymously named Spanish firm. BT's 3 million or so broadband customers will be able to become "Foneros," taking advantage of more than 190,000 free hot spots around the world.

The amount of BT's investment in FON was undisclosed, but it joins previous investors Google, Skype, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, according to the FON web site. The Wall Street Journal says the move will boost BT's Fusion phone service, which supports roaming among fixed, mobile and wireless networks. It's a wireless play sans wireless network. Rather than maintain beau coup cell towers and transmitters, BT buys into a ready-made network maintained by users. Neuf Cegetel in France reportedly bought in earlier this year; so did Time Warner Cable. FON is said to be on track to have 1 million hot spots by the end of '08. The network-captive iPhone is so 10 minutes ago…

For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has details here
- A bit of a different spin from VoIP Weekly is here

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