With LightSquared Reeling, FreedomPop Looking Elsewhere Talking to Other Carriers, June Launch at Earliest Late last year Skype co-founder Niklas Zennström announced he'd be launching a new wireless carrier in 2012 that provides free wireless service. Zennstrom and company are being a little murky about the specific financials behind the service, which is supposed to piggyback on the so-far-nonexistent LightSquared network. With LightSquared increasingly looking like they may never build an actual network, FreedomPop has started looking elsewhere for partners: FreedomPop’s aim is to launch service this summer, around June at the earliest. Miller said service will be available nationwide, or close to it, at launch. Since its original network launch partner, LightSquared, is mired in regulatory delays, FreedomPop has been talking to other wholesalers and wireless carriers about renting network capacity. FreedomPop will announce a new partner in coming weeks, said Miller. And by a "new partner" they likely mean Sprint or Clearwire. As recently noted there's a significant number of new 2012 upstart MVNOs that hope to be disruptive in pricing while avoiding the fate that generally befalls MVNOs. What makes these upstarts more interesting is that many of them are exploring "free" options, where base tiers cost nothing and consumers have greater options when it comes to adding exactly the minute, byte and SMS totals they need. While these companies may not last, they may still add some much-deeded disruption to stale wireless sector pricing.
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interesting
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Wonder if they are trying to get the poor on federal dole