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How does FreedomPop make money?

latimes.com

11–20 of 72 posts

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#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 fined, big time.

Now they stopped giving that free service, and you have to pay. I don't think many people will pay anything. It's a scam.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#13
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 phone number, just VoIP so it gets rejected for verification).

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#14
post #5

Pretty 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

I, too, have seen the fnords.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#15
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?

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#17
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?

I think you mean Google Hangouts if you are taking a about the app(which is confusing and frankly my work on both on Android) and incoming calls only works on Android.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#18

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

It's complicated. In general, no, due to different base technologies (GSM vs CDMA), and the US carriers' unlock policies (the carriers can sometimes lock your phone to their network). In specific, maybe, because some phones (mostly new iPhones and Nexus/Pixel devices) can be used on all US networks, and the CDMA carriers have started to use SIM cards like the GSM carriers.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#20

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

Not an easily answerable question, and no one is giving you the real answer:

look at the specific bands that your phone supports. there is no other way of knowing. a good amount of phones are CDMA and GSM. if your phone is carrier locked, you will also need to find a way of undoing that.

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