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How does FreedomPop make money?

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Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#31

Post by sweep4r »

GranPC wrote: post #28
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?

https://bandaancha.eu/foros/freedompop-dejara-sin-servicio-c...

I received an email regarding this this morning.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#32

Post by pbnjay »

I 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 now on project fi. Both are miles above FreedomPop.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#33

Post by mfrommil »

"but neither they nor FreedomPop can record or monitor calls as long as only FreedomPop users are participants."

If Freedompop has a couple million customers, chances are that 95+% are not calls only involving 2 Freedompop customers... So 95+% of Freedompop customers' calls are likely monitored and recorded by Sprint or AT&T. This is scary.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#34

Post by jdhawk »

tedmiston wrote: post #26
jdhawk wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If you use the FreedomPop app, yes...using the native dialer and messages app for SMS, no.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#35

Post by Aaargh20318 »

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…

> I see they're selling data-only SIMs. Is that new? I thought Apple & Google insisted phones must have plan with a phone line.

I'm not sure why you think Google or Apple can dictate terms to operators who do not even sell their phones.

Data-only SIM's are quite common, they are used in tablets, 4G USB-sticks for laptops, portable 4G-wifi routers, etc.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#36

Post by stanleydrew »

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?

Yes. About 4 years ago they integrated full VoIP calling into something they call the Hangouts Dialer. Outbound works well, although I often have to initiate a call twice due to setup connectivity weirdness on LTE. Inbound basically never works, so I leave the PSTN forwarding on for that reason.

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#37

Post by GranPC »

sweep4r wrote: post #31
GranPC wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

https://bandaancha.eu/foros/freedompop-dejara-sin-servicio-c... I received an email regarding this this morning.

Oh wow, what a trainwreck. Thanks for letting me know -- I didn't receive anything!

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#38

Post by bluedino »

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…

>> They don't give you a real phone number, just some app you need to use to call.

A lot of ultra-low budget phone plans are like this (TextNow for example)

Re: How does FreedomPop make money?

#39

Post by malchow »

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…

Can one use a data-only SIM in an iPhone? I seem to recall trying this once, and it failed.
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