Varsavsky has found that operating across national borders does bring some challenges. FON has attracted criticism in Germany, where hotspot owners are held legally accountable for web traffic that passes through any router registered in their name. Varsavsky is keen to put the record straight; FON, he says, has been in talks with the German government from the beginning, and the company is able to distinguish between the FON subscriber and any rogue users who have been engaged in illegal activity from that hotspot. Opportunist hackers have been thwarted by the new edition router, La Fonera, which creates two separate channels – one for public surfers and another for the private owner and user of the router.

FON faces other limitations. It relies on an active community consisting mostly of private individuals and small business operators using their own broadband connection. Big commercial centres and airport departure lounge are unlikely to become FON zones unless the owners or operators of these sites make a push to sign up. Clearly, FON may struggle to prevent big business from locking out the free Wi-Fi community in a few select areas where it is sorely needed by business travellers. On the other hand, if the established hotspot providers are driven out of business or forced to dramatically reduce their prices, FON could emerge triumphantly as the provider of choice in its former hinterlands.

Critics point out that individual ISP policies often forbid the sharing of connections, but in reality this is not an obstacle – even Tim Snape of the Internet Service Providers Association admits that FON’s philosophy is a respectable one. “Anything that makes it easier for the consumer to get the benefit of the internet is a good thing,” he says. “If systems like this are being used for browsing websites and perhaps a bit of e-mail, then the amount of traffic is so negligible it’s not a problem. If they’re being used to download thousands of CDs then that becomes an issue, but this would also apply if it was an individual who wasn’t sharing the connection. It’s abuse that ISPs don’t like.”

So what next for FON? It would make sense for major operators like BT to follow Neuf Cegetel’s lead by incorporating the FON software into their standard-issue routers, and a deal is rumoured to be just round the corner. This strategy would help FON to reel in millions of new subscribers by delivering a simple plug-and-play device right to their doorstep.

It will be apt indeed if the business wunderkind of politically turbulent Argentina can turn a clever revenue-sharing operation into his latest billion-euro company, at the same time as honouring the Varsavsky family tradition by making Wi-Fi for the masses a new reality.