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FreedomPop Offers WiMax Case for iPod Touch
Provides iPod Users With 500 MB of Free Data Per Month

Confirming a report from early June by Light Reading's Dan Jones, hopeful-wireless-upstart FreedomPop this week confirmed they'll be offering iPod Touch users a $99 case that will allow the device to connect to the FreedomPop (Clearwire) WiMax network. According to the company's website, the $99 case will provide users with up to 500 MB of free data a month -- up to 1GB if they refer additional friends or participate in promotions.

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Users who hit the cap then pay $10 per gigabyte. Created by Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström, FreedomPop originally planned to use the LightSquared network, but signed a network sharing arrangement with Clearwire back in February. The company says their goal is to eventually become a "free social wireless broadband" company, though the company's on record stating their focused on targeting their services to the 18-25 set.

Disrupting standard operating procedure by (somewhat) bypassing the carriers is something many people (including Apple) have had ambitions toward, but none have traditionally succeeded. FreedomPop is just one of several wireless operators launching this year who hope to accomplish this using some form of free base connectivity option as a way to get their foot in the door.
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JasonOD
@comcast.net

JasonOD

Anon

Desire to be a 'Free social wireless broadband company'?

Yeah, clearwire will get you there. No legitimate carrier is going to work with these guys.
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Desire to be a 'Free social wireless broadband company'?

FreedomPop has actually signed an agreement with Sprint, so that once Sprint LTE makes it to a reasonable amount of people you'll see FreedomPop come out with a new, LTE-enabled sleeve.

swintec
Premium Member
join:2003-12-19
Alfred, ME

swintec

Premium Member

Re: Desire to be a 'Free social wireless broadband company'?

said by iansltx:

FreedomPop has actually signed an agreement with Sprint, so that once Sprint LTE makes it to a reasonable amount of people you'll see FreedomPop come out with a new, LTE-enabled sleeve.

I wish Sprint would let there actual subscribers have use of the new LTE network for a few years before signing up these third party "fluff" services.

The EVDO network really took a beating within the last 2 years from these types of arrangements I think, not to mention the iPhone I guess. I have to wonder what sort of QoS there is on the network between a Sprint subscriber and all of these other services who use it. Maybe they dont care?
iansltx
join:2007-02-19
Austin, TX

iansltx

Member

Re: Desire to be a 'Free social wireless broadband company'?

Maybe they're trying to lose less money than they already are, by signing up as many MVNOs as they can because their absolute cost per subscriber (billing, etc.) is low?

As a postpaid customer of Sprint with a high-end phone and reasonably high-end plan (it's basically the entry-level Everything Data plan, but cheaper and with more features) I'd say bring on the extra customers if they're using LTE; Sprint will have plenty of capacity on that network, unlike their EvDO one, and my bet is that they won't sell unlimited-data buckets to MVNOs other than their own (Boost/Virgin), so people won't abuse the system too much.
kaila
join:2000-10-11
Lincolnshire, IL

kaila to swintec

Member

to swintec
said by swintec:

....The EVDO network really took a beating within the last 2 years from these types of arrangements I think, not to mention the iPhone I guess. I have to wonder what sort of QoS there is on the network between a Sprint subscriber and all of these other services who use it. Maybe they dont care?

They do QoS very well. I have kids using Virgin Mobile and it can be a very different experience depending. For sure 3g data is very 2nd class for MVNO's.

Not every site employs this but at O'Hare airport (we live in the Chicago area), Sprint's cell sites use dynamic PRL's to shunt off Virgin (and presumably all MVNO's) when conditions warrant. I've witnessed my daughters VM phone go from full signal to no signal in an instant as cell sites become invisible.

JasonOD
@comcast.net

JasonOD to iansltx

Anon

to iansltx
Like I said, no legitimate carrier is going to work with these guys.

pclover
join:2008-08-02
Santa Cruz, CA

pclover

Member

Ads

And how is it going to be paid for? Targeted ads by building a profile of what you search?

I doubt the case is going to pay for it.
elray
join:2000-12-16
Santa Monica, CA

elray

Member

4G Anywhere ... But here!

While I wouldn't expect this company's business model to last too long, 500MB for an iPod user is more than sufficient.

Too bad we have no Clear coverage.

Transmaster
Don't Blame Me I Voted For Bill and Opus
join:2001-06-20
Cheyenne, WY

Transmaster

Member

Not in Cheyenne

more stuff for the landfill.
jrr7
join:2001-08-20
New York, NY

jrr7

Member

This sounds like

a great way to pay $99 for twenty days of wireless service before the company declares bankruptcy and leaves you with a paperweight.
ISurfTooMuch
join:2007-04-23
Tuscaloosa, AL

ISurfTooMuch

Member

No thanks

It isn't that I don't like the concept, but I wouldn't put any money into anything running on Clearwire's network. Just my observation, but it's at a dead end. No further expansion, even when they could have simply snagged Open Range's network and instantly increased their coverage. The way I see it, Clearwire's WiMAX network is a dead end, and the entire company may also be. There's no way I'd buy anything that runs on it right now.