How does FreedomPop make money?
latimes.com
How does FreedomPop make money?
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#2> There are limits on monthly usage (500 megabytes in the U.S.) and caps on calling and texting (three hours and 500 messages).
I think I'm paying something like CAD$40/month for this level of service in Canada.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#3Pretty straight-forward submarine here.
The article is overloaded with gonna and might and could be and by end of x date. And then of course the not subtle money revs. Whatever PR firm put together this submarine, made them sound desperate:
"The Los Angeles company says its emergence over the last six years has led" ... "a near-acqusition for as much as $450 million"
"The company is reviewing a previously undisclosed acquisition offer, but discussions are continuing about potentially going public next year."
"A near-bankrupt FreedomPop was hours away from selling to Sprint in 2015 when a new $30-million investment came in from venture capitalists. Stokols isn’t in a cash crunch this time around."
"Investors are equivocal about when to sell, saying that they’ll weigh any offers, like the one on the table now, but that they generally want to see the company remain independent for some time."
"If they hold out, investors could turn into potential acquirers." (har har, nice fake spin by the PR firm on trying to project power)
So what you're really saying is: you want to sell (soon!), you're going to hit a money crunch because the business has no margin and it's very expensive to compete (but we could IPO any minute now, so you better buy us first), your investors are worried (we like putting more money into a red ink machine that nearly went under before), you're fake-touting strength when you're actually not in that position at all (we might buy the entire telecom industry!), and everything you might accomplish is forecast to x date into the future (when you hope to have already sold, so the cash burning 'business' is a problem for someone else).
Want to know what this really is? History rhymes. It's PeoplePC from the dotcom bubble.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#4Is the Sprint/FreedomPop network compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile phones?
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#5Pretty straight-forward submarine here. The article is overloaded with gonna and might and could be and by end of x date. And then of course the not subtle money revs. Whatever PR firm put together this submarine, made them sound desperate: "The Los Angeles company says its emergence over the last six years has led" ... "a near-acqusition for as much as $450 million" "The company is reviewing a previously undisclosed…
For those wondering what a submarine is: http://www.paulgraham.com/submarine.html
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#6FreedomPop is operating on a scamming shady level by not being honest about what they are selling.
They don't give you a real phone number, just some app you need to use to call.
Avoid them.
Edit: Is it how hacker news community is? downvoting because I tell the truth how their service is? I had the experience of getting charged for months without warning. They use your credit card, instead of direct debit in the UK so even more annoying for cancelling. And no requiring customer to read every details of your contract is not fair. Fair is an important part of any contract, finding you are getting a VoIP number is not normal.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#7FreedomPop is operating on a scamming shady level by not being honest about what they are selling. They don't give you a real phone number, just some app you need to use to call. Avoid them. Edit: Is it how hacker news community is? downvoting because I tell the truth how their service is? I had the experience of getting charged for months without warning. They use your credit card, instead of direct debit in the UK…
? I have their SIM card installed in a smartphone. It works like any other phone.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#8I had a FreedomPop mifi box for 18 months which was great, cost me about $60 from memory for the hardware and a few dollars/mo in fees when I upgraded something. It stopped when Sprint turned off Wimax.
I think there is a big market for people that want to pay $5-$15/mo for a small data only plan for people that will use Wifi on their phone 90% of the time but want to use mobile data just occasionally. Most of the major plans start way over that.
I see they're selling data-only SIMs for phones. Is that new? I thought Apple & Google insisted phones must have plan with a phone line. (If its good I think I'll go back to data only (with Google Voice))
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#9FreedomPop is operating on a scamming shady level by not being honest about what they are selling. They don't give you a real phone number, just some app you need to use to call. Avoid them. Edit: Is it how hacker news community is? downvoting because I tell the truth how their service is? I had the experience of getting charged for months without warning. They use your credit card, instead of direct debit in the UK…
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Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#10Is the Sprint/FreedomPop network compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile phones?
I have an unlocked T-Mobile iPhone 5s that I put a Freedom Pop sim in as a "guest phone" for my visiting Non-US Friends and Family.
It seems to work just fine. It is strange that its not a real phone number, only a VOIP style app - but it still works with iMessage and WhatsApp, and they can make and receive calls in a pinch.