Global Wi-Fi provider Fon has revealed that it now provides more that 15 million Wi-Fi hotspots around the world, after adding more than three million in the last year alone.
The network, founded in 2006, has ongoing partnerships with a number of major European operators including BT, Deutsche Telekom, KPN, Proximus and Vodafone, as well numerous telcos on other continents.
Fon said the “record growth” in hotspot deployments came as a result of network expansion with existing partners, alongside the addition of new partners in Spain, Italy, Australia and Japan.
In April, Vodafone began deploying Fon Wi-Fi to customers in Europe.
Fon claimed it was seeing a “continuous growth” of Wi-Fi deployments in the Americas, Oceania and Asia and also expected to see further expansion in Japan via its partnership with regional telco SoftBank.
As a result, Fon expects to have deployed more than 25 million Wi-Fi hotspots “in a few years”.
Alex Puregger, who was this week appointed as the company’s new CEO, said: “We are only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how we use Wi-Fi and how to make Fon Wi-Fi an integrated part of our everyday lives at home and on the move.
“In the coming years, we will see many billions of devices constantly looking for Wi-Fi. I am very excited that I was entrusted with the CEO role and the task of leading the company into that next phase.”
Last year, the Wi-Fi Alliance told Mobile Europe that service providers are increasingly looking to “Wi-Fi first” business models in order to reap the commercial opportunities the technology can offer.
A report from the Taiwan-based Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute in April forecast Wi-Fi device shipments to hit 3.75 billion by 2019.