Fon signs up Time Warner

Open wifi champion, Fon, said Monday that it had struck a deal with US cable broadband provider, Time Warner, to allow subscribers to access growing wifi network.

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.

Spanish-based Fon said its has nearly 60,000 community members in the US and is the largest wifi network in the country.

Hotspot providers are Fon community members, called Foneros, who share their bandwidth via a Fon router in exchange for free wifi access when roaming through any other Fon access point around the world.

Time Warner Cable has 13.4 million basic cable subscribers and 6.6 million residential broadband subscribers.

The La Fonera router offers two wifi channels. One channel is for the exclusive use of its owner; the second channel is shared with other Foneros.