I’d read about Fon some time ago. I’m not sure where. I was very interested. It works like this: You buy a wireless router for $50. You use it to share your wireless internet with other Fon users. Those users either pay Fon for the privilege or they have their own routers and they let people use it for free, in which case they can use any Fon routers for free themselves. Or they can get some money from Fon but then they have to pay (half off, I think) to use other Fon routers.
For me, they’re throwing in a wifi area extender antenna which is usually $20 for $2 when I buy the Fonera+ router at the same time. So for me, heck, if this just extends my home wifi signal, that has some value to me. But it’s really about sharing. What I’d really like to see is a countrywide (reasonable coverage, anyway) wireless mesh network connecting people to the internet for a small cost.
Fon is a step in the right direction.