FreedomPop is a pretty interesting service. The company was founded back in 2011 with the goal of providing freemium Internet to people in the United States. Recently, it has also expanded its service to mobile devices. For free, the company offers 500MB of mobile data. Additional data on top of that would cost you $10 – $20 per gigabyte. You can also earn more data by performing tasks such as signing up for Netflix or registering a domain name through GoDaddy. Should you refer someone to the service and they end up signing up, you will receive 50MB of free data service. The downside was that this service only applied to things like hotspots, not smartphones.
On Wednesday, FreedomPop announced that it is now expanding its free service to more people, more devices, and with more services. The freemium company has announced that it will now begin to offer a plan for free that includes 500MB of data, 200 voice minutes, and unlimited texting. The company promises that there are no hidden charges, no fees whatsoever, and most importantly, the company says you are not dealing with a wireless carriers. If the 200 voice minutes seem low, the carrier is also offering free unlimited calling if you are calling another FreedomPop customer.
FreedomPop touts that this is the first all-data device, as calling is being performed through a VoIP technology.
One analyst thinks that FreedomPop is up to something huge with this service. “This is not only disruptive, but game-changing,” said Jonathan Chaplin Newstreet analyst Jonathan Chaplin. “This move completely marginalizes the voice network by leveraging VoIP over cellular and is extremely threatening to already declining voice margins.”
Now you may be wondering how the company makes money, well obviously you have to buy the device to use on their network. It also makes money when you buy more data or perform one of the aforementioned tasks. The company’s CEO says that this has led to 50 percent gross margins, as well as high customer demand.
FreedomPop’s new freemium service will be compatible with “several popular Android phones” and will launch later this summer.
Will be taking advantage of this service? It seems interesting for sure. Let us know down in the comments!