Google & eBay Join Together to bring Free Wi Fi

 Seattle PI

FON, a company funded by Google Inc. and eBay Inc. to promote free wireless Internet access, will start selling routers for $5 to encourage consumers to share their Web connections with others.

Consumers buying the routers, which usually cost about $60, will need to let others use their Internet connections and in return will be able to connect for free to other wireless hot spots that are part of the network, said Juergen Urbanski, Madrid-based FON’s U.S. general manager.

FON, which in February raised $21.7 million from Google, eBay’s Skype Technologies, Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, is aiming to build a global network of wireless fidelity, or Wi-Fi, links to promote Internet access. The company also wants to give consumers a way of making money by renting connections to others.

“We want Wi-Fi to become much more ubiquitous,” Urbanski, who is based in San Francisco, said in a Friday interview. “That’s good news for the different Web-based companies. It’s good for the router makers.”