The details may be complicated, but the answer to the question is the same as for other "free" services:
If you don't pay for the product, YOU are the product.
How does FreedomPop make money?
51–60 of 72 posts
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#52I tried FreedomPop a few months ago. The service was terribly unreliable and call quality was poor. I cancelled after 2 weeks, and surprise the renewal still charged me. Which I contested with my cancellation confirmation email. Then a got a message from a collections agency about the still unpaid charge. Still no closure, worst experience I've ever had with a phone company! I used straight talk for years, and I'm no…
Project Fi seems cool and something I would happily subscribe to. Too bad it only works with Google phones.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#53> 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...
Of course they can. Of course you cannot. T-Mobile, for example even monitors and freaking blocks your usage to certain sites when on airplane mode and on wifi - even when you have wifi assist disabled. Further, they even deduct from you data usage wifi use! It's provable! I've proved it and T-Mobile Philippines call center says "oops let me reset your data plan" when called on it. I proved it by only being in airpla…
It's a shitty system, but they openly admit to doing this: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1680
If you have a plan that doesn't offer unlimited calling, calls made over Wi-Fi Calling count against your plan minutes. For Pay In Advance prepaid lines, calls made over Wi-Fi deduct from the plan bucket just like regular calls.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#54I've actually had surprisingly good luck with their AT&T LTE sim. I use Google Voice as my primary phone number, so as long as I have an internet connection, I'm golden. The Freedompop sim goes in a burner phone that I take to the beach or out on the water.
The trick here is to realize that they are basically a scam company and treat them as such. I used a temporary credit card number to prevent any unwanted charges. As long as they're willing to give me a backup LTE connection for free, I'm willing to take it. When they inevitably implode, oh well.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#55> 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...
Of course they can. Of course you cannot. T-Mobile, for example even monitors and freaking blocks your usage to certain sites when on airplane mode and on wifi - even when you have wifi assist disabled. Further, they even deduct from you data usage wifi use! It's provable! I've proved it and T-Mobile Philippines call center says "oops let me reset your data plan" when called on it. I proved it by only being in airpla…
That seems very hard to believe
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
Of course they can. Of course you cannot. T-Mobile, for example even monitors and freaking blocks your usage to certain sites when on airplane mode and on wifi - even when you have wifi assist disabled. Further, they even deduct from you data usage wifi use! It's provable! I've proved it and T-Mobile Philippines call center says "oops let me reset your data plan" when called on it. I proved it by only being in airpla…
It's a shitty system, but they openly admit to doing this: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1680 If you have a plan that doesn't offer unlimited calling, calls made over Wi-Fi Calling count against your plan minutes. For Pay In Advance prepaid lines, calls made over Wi-Fi deduct from the plan bucket just like regular calls.
That’s one thing but he’s saying it’s counting Data. I can’t believe that.
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#57> 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...
Of course they can. Of course you cannot. T-Mobile, for example even monitors and freaking blocks your usage to certain sites when on airplane mode and on wifi - even when you have wifi assist disabled. Further, they even deduct from you data usage wifi use! It's provable! I've proved it and T-Mobile Philippines call center says "oops let me reset your data plan" when called on it. I proved it by only being in airpla…
Thats a pretty bold claim. Can you name a single site Tmobile blocks when using WiFi?
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a shitty system, but they openly admit to doing this: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-1680 If you have a plan that doesn't offer unlimited calling, calls made over Wi-Fi Calling count against your plan minutes. For Pay In Advance prepaid lines, calls made over Wi-Fi deduct from the plan bucket just like regular calls.
That’s one thing but he’s saying it’s counting Data. I can’t believe that.
Oh, that's crazy. I just saw "wifi calling" and automatically assumed it was their crappy policy on plan minutes (AT&T doesn't charge them).
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#59The money shot, albeit unsurprising:
"FreedomPop collects data about users’ backgrounds and phone habits."
Re: How does FreedomPop make money?
#60I 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…
Can one use a data-only SIM in an iPhone? I seem to recall trying this once, and it failed.
Yes, I've a data-only SIM from T-Mobile US in my iPhone. Works great. $35 / 6GB and comes with datastash and BingOn.