FreedomPop Unveils More Details on Free Wireless Data 1 GB Free, 1 Cent per Each Additional MB Late last year Skype co-founder Niklas Zennstr�m announced he'd be launching a new wireless carrier in 2012 named FreedomPop that provides free wireless service. Zennstrom and company are being a little murky about the specific financials behind the service, aside from the fact there will be a base level of free connectivity.

GigaOM's Kevin Fitchard got a little more detail out of FreedomPop VP of marketing Tony Miller, who says the company at launch will initially offer up to 1 GB of connectivity free (a number they may scale back) with overages of one cent per additional megabyte. The company also has grand ambitions to fuse the effort into a partial social network, where customers and friends can make capacity a tradeable commodity: quote: The MVNO plans to make capacity a currency that customers can earn and trade. Customers will get bigger free data buckets for every customer they refer to the service. And in the future, Miller said, FreedomPop plans to make that capacity transferable. Say you’re running up against your 1 GB cap, but a friend who also happens to be a FreedomPop customer may be well short of hitting his cap. That customer can give you a portion of his free data allotment, allowing you to keep surfing gratis. FreedomPop is one of several new MVNOs to try and disrupt increasingly stale wireless industry data pricing with base free tiers. Users who gobble a lot of data will very quickly find themselves facing metering, and the company primarily hopes to make money by throwing a lot of added services at the end user (probably not entirely unlike MetroPCS's 's Kevin Fitchard got a little more detail out of FreedomPop VP of marketing Tony Miller, who says the company at launch will initially offer up to 1 GB of connectivity free (a number they may scale back) with overages of one cent per additional megabyte. The company also has grand ambitions to fuse the effort into a partial social network, where customers and friends can make capacity a tradeable commodity:FreedomPop is one of several new MVNOs to try and disrupt increasingly stale wireless industry data pricing with base free tiers. Users who gobble a lot of data will very quickly find themselves facing metering, and the company primarily hopes to make money by throwing a lot of added services at the end user (probably not entirely unlike MetroPCS's MetroMarket effort. The company says they may or may not also be offering a VoIP service.







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mix

join:2002-03-19

Rockford, IL mix Member No such thing as a free lunch... $10/GB... *sigh*

thegeek

Premium Member

join:2008-02-21

right here thegeek Premium Member Re: No such thing as a free lunch... Well it is free if you only eat 1GB worth of sandwiches or whatever you eat for lunch. 88615298 (banned)

join:2004-07-28

West Tenness 88615298 (banned) to mix

Member to mix

said by mix: $10/GB... *sigh*

Well not quite the same as at&t/verizon. With at&t/Verizon if you go 50 MB over you still get a $10 charge. At 1 cent per MB that would be 50 cents.

dib22

join:2002-01-27

Kansas City, MO dib22 to mix

Member to mix

said by mix: $10/GB... *sigh*

That 1GB of overage on sprint would run you $51.20 desarollo

join:2011-10-01

Monroe, MI desarollo Member Virtual Networks Can't Innovate the Wireless Industry The second something like this becomes successful, the incumbent carriers will toss a pillow over it and suffocate it.



This is innovative, but true innovation comes with real competition. Buying wholesale service will only work while you're not worth worrying about. ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23

Tuscaloosa, AL ISurfTooMuch Member Re: Virtual Networks Can't Innovate the Wireless Industry Yep, it's like competing with Walmart by leasing space for a store inside Walmart.



If these companies really want to compete, they're going to have to build their own networks.

jmn1207

Premium Member

join:2000-07-19

Sterling, VA 2 recommendations jmn1207 Premium Member Re: Virtual Networks Can't Innovate the Wireless Industry Unfortunately, the only reason we see any type of wireless network builds at all is because the few giants with the necessary resources have ensured, through lobbying and secret agreements, that they will never have to worry about such competition. Those few networks that are available are acting in collusion, but their power and influence keeps them out of any kind of legal trouble. The conglomerates are setting the policies now. Game over. elray

join:2000-12-16

Santa Monica, CA elray to desarollo

Member to desarollo

I wouldn't call anything virtual/wholesale "innovative", but they can certainly be disruptive.



While FreedomPop is charging the same "high overages" that our fearless blogger always assails, they are also endorsing and educating the public on the real potential of UBB.



Big-bucket major carriers will HAVE to counter with substantially better rates for larger buckets to keep customers from defecting.



For those of us who don't "need" to stream anything, this offering is quite attractive, especially versus TruConnect. (Clear has no coverage in my town, so NetZero is not up for consideration.) desarollo

join:2011-10-01

Monroe, MI 1 recommendation desarollo Member Re: Virtual Networks Can't Innovate the Wireless Industry No they won't. They'll change the terms of the wholesale agreement every time it comes up for negotiation, raising the bar higher and higher until the virtual network operators trip.



We've already seen how the telcos behave when they're *required* to do something. Recall how wholesale DSL went for ISPs, and the incumbents were required under law to do that. They behaved exactly as above, until it became unprofitable or they drove the independents out of business.



As I stated above, disruptive pricing will work only until the virtual network is not a problem. After that, they'll be destroyed and/or purchased.

memeUT

@utoledo.edu memeUT Anon Re: Virtual Networks Can't Innovate the Wireless Industry And freedom pop runs on Clear's network- Sprint will need this customer to help them look better when they push out their earnings report and claim they have more customers; when they actually are only sub-customers. Which they should NOT be able to count as their own. ISurfTooMuch

join:2007-04-23

Tuscaloosa, AL ISurfTooMuch Member So this will run on Clearwire's network? Forgive me if this has been discussed, but I'm assuming this will run on Clearwire's network. Is it still even being expanded? Last I checked, there's no WiMAX here (Open Range used to cover some nearby areas), so, unless Clearwire still has plans to expand, I doubt I'll ever see this service.

memeUT

@utoledo.edu memeUT Anon Re: So this will run on Clearwire's network? Clear has networks that were BUILT and NEVER turned on. Toledo Ohio is one of them. They even show on their website the network has been built. But NOT accepting new customers. Money they spent for no reason. But probably a Sprint move for that- spending money that should have NOT been spent.

mix

join:2002-03-19

Rockford, IL GL.iNet GL-B1300

Netgear CM500

mix Member Re: So this will run on Clearwire's network?



»s4gru.com/index.php?/top ··· n-sites/ This is wrong. The Clearwire site in Toledo is turned on. It is exactly one tower. There are towers like this all across the country, and they simply exist as protection sites to satisfy the FCC mandate that service be deployed by a certain date to a certain percentage of the population in each market, or Clearwire would forfeit the spectrum. BiggA

Premium Member

join:2005-11-23

Central CT BiggA Premium Member More uselesss connectivity More Clearwire connectivity that works almost nowhere. Verizon's iPad plan is a lot more transformative than this, with MHS starting at $20/mo, on a network that actually has coverage.

djrobx

Premium Member

join:2000-05-31

Valencia, CA djrobx Premium Member Re: More uselesss connectivity said by BiggA: More Clearwire connectivity that works almost nowhere. Verizon's iPad plan is a lot more transformative than this, with MHS starting at $20/mo, on a network that actually has coverage.

And tethering is included. Verizon gained me as a customer with that one. BiggA

Premium Member

join:2005-11-23

Central CT BiggA Premium Member Re: More uselesss connectivity Yeah, that's what's so big about it. And the global SIM capability, with most carriers globally supporting MHS. Throw it in your backpack, and you've got GB of cheap mobile connectivity for all the gadgets in your group. your comment..

