How does FreedomPop make money? • Hacker News Board

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#21

Post by StronglyTyped » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:00 PM UTC

etaty wrote: post #6

FreedomPop 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 tried out a FreedomPop phone once and they ended up taking my credit card number and began billing me at the end of some term they had. I tried to cancel the service using their online service and got an email confirmation that it was canceled, but they billed me for months and I had to keep filing disputes with my credit card company. I won't touch or recommend FreedomPop.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#22

Post by zanny » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:04 PM UTC

walterbell wrote: post #4

Is the Sprint/FreedomPop network compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile phones?

Freedom pop has a contract with at&t as well, you need one of their at&t sims tho.

I have one in a spare Verizon note 4 - it gets h+ networking rather than 4g, but its useable.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#23

Post by zanny » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:06 PM UTC

Karunamon wrote: post #7

etaty wrote: post #6

FreedomPop 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.

It gives you data but not native calling or SMS. You get about as good voice quality over freedompops VoIP as you do on google voice.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#24

Post by ingenium » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:10 PM UTC

walterbell wrote: post #4

Is the Sprint/FreedomPop network compatible with AT&T and T-Mobile phones?

FreedomPop sells AT&T SIMs. The phones they sell are for Sprint. I have accounts on both. I use the free AT&T SIM in my car and get 1GB free/month, which is more than sufficient for my Google Maps/Earth and directions usage.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#25

Post by wyldfire » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:10 PM UTC

ReverseCold wrote: post #13

etaty wrote: post #6

FreedomPop 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…

It's real data and a VoIP number, looks okay to me. I thought they make money off the no confirmation "upgrades" with monthly fees. While sketchy, it is actually free after the "activation fee" etc. There was also ring+ which shut down, pay a few hundred up front for 5GB data "for life" + a real non VoIP phone number. All in all unless you can't afford cell service at all, it really isn't worth the hassle (no real ph…

If you take the price I paid for RP data and divide it over the number of months for which I had service, it still comes out with a competitive rate. So I'm not too disappointed there.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#26

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:16 PM UTC

jdhawk wrote: post #10

walterbell wrote: post #4

Is 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.

You mean FreedomPop can't make / receive normal phone calls, like through the iPhone phone app?

Can you send / receive text messages to short codes?

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#27

Post by tedmiston » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:17 PM UTC

> FreedomPop pays Sprint and AT&T based on customer usage. The two big carriers can see what websites FreedomPop users are checking out, but neither they nor FreedomPop can record or monitor calls as long as only FreedomPop users are participants.

I wonder if the major carriers track and log web browsing history of their own customers as well? And if we can opt out...

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#28

Post by GranPC » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:17 PM UTC

sweep4r wrote: post #12

FreedomPop in Spain was a free service until recently. It was completely unusable. They were selling Three (UK) cards that worked here in roaming. The internet service simply didn't work. They were assigning telephone numbers they borrowed from another company. That company didn't have a licence to lend their assigned numbers, that was illegal, so they had to stop providing their services and I suppose they'll get fi…

Huh? I have two FreedomPop SIM cards, which I made a one-time payment of 3 € for (with no monthly fee), and it's been mostly reliable so far. Are you saying they're gonna add a monthly fee, or is the one-time payment new?

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#29

Post by rb808 » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:19 PM UTC

danellis wrote: post #15

rb808 wrote: post #8

I 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 ma…

Google Voice just used to use data to set up a PSTN call. Has something changed?

Exactly - I can have a data-only plan to receive calls on a number.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#30

Post by throw7 » Fri, Aug 25, 2017, 2:22 PM UTC

Recently I looked into moving some family members onto cheaper plans. I did look at freedompop, but decided to try mintsim; freedompop seemed... "sketchy".

But the problem was I ran into barriers for byop. The 1st phone was a verizon phone, which, while unlocked, they disabled access to configure APN settings.

The second phone was a net10 android one phone. When I called them, they said they couldn't technically unlock the phone and the best they could do would be to send me $5 dollars for it.