BT and FON today announced the launch of a partnership called (shockingly enough) BT FON, which the companies are describing as "the world's largest Wi-Fi community."

The aim is to join BT's more than 3 million broadband customers with FON's global community of 500,000 members. And it's more than just a simple partnership - as part of the agreement, BT is now an investor in FON and has a seat on the company's board.

"This is the start of something very exciting for BT," says BT's Gavin Patterson. "Today we are launching a people's network of Wi-Fi, which could one day cover every street in Britain. We are giving our millions of Total Broadband customers a choice and an opportunity. If they are prepared to securely share a little of their broadband, they can share the broadband at hundreds of thousands of FON and BT Openzone hotspots today, without paying a penny."

More here from CNET News ... more here from ZDNet ... more here from Computerworld ... more here from BBC News ... and the press release is here.