FreedomPop's Free Home Broadband Service Now Live
You can get some free internet if you live in a covered area.
She wants you to get FreedomPop. Like, now.FreedomPop said on Wednesday that it has finally launched its free broadband internet service. Of course, nothing is entirely free: potential customers will be required to purchase the $89 Burst wireless (WiMAX) modem/router. But after that, customers can receive 1 GB of free data at speeds under 1.5 Mbps each month. Every additional 1 MB beyond that cap is one cent.
"Major broadband providers are charging in excess of $500 per year for home Internet, and continuing to raise their prices – leaving consumers desperate for ways to cut down on their monthly bills for home Internet," said Stephen Stokols , FreedomPop's CEO. "FreedomPop's early success in the wireless market has put us in position to offer home broadband users significantly discounted alternatives."
To get even more free unlimited data, customers can add friends to their network via email and social media networks, and engage in partner promotions. They can also shell out cash for actual data plans including 10 GB at 1.5 Mbps for $10 per month, 10 GB at 3 Mbps for $15 per month, and 10 GB at 8 Mbps for $18 per month.
"FreedomPop's free wireless Internet model brings a new level of competition not seen in the U.S. broadband market to date," the company said. "Unlike most European markets, capped data plans for lighter consumption are not available in the U.S., leaving consumers to sign up for unlimited plans that can range from $45 to $60 per month."
Unfortunately, FreedomPop currently doesn't offer actual nationwide coverage – at least, not yet. Potential customers are asked to enter their zip code to determine if FreedomPop is currently available in their area. If not, customers are directed to a map showing the network's progress, or to sign up and purchase the modem anyway.
Based on the map, coverage is spotty at best, residing in highly populated cities. In Nevada, FreedomPop is only offered in Las Vegas whereas Denver is the only available city in Colorado. California has seven cities listed and Texas has twelve. Many states like Montana, Alabama, Arizona and Iowa don't even offer coverage. Around 70 cities comprise of FreedomPop's broadband service thanks to Clearwire’s WiMAX network.
Based on that, the launch of FreedomPop's free broadband is a start, but there's a long way to go. For more information about the new service, head here.
It all depends on what's free and pops out
Can't wait until these wireless ISPs finally become good enough to threaten the cable companies though. It would force them to lower prices or increase speed, both of which I would love.
Also, I need about 25 megs per month. How much is that going to cost me?
Maybe this isn't really cheaper than my AT&T DSL? 6 megs down, 1.5 up for ~$50 a month. Under 30 ms latency.
it all depends on what you are doing. For me personally, it would be an awful deal. We do not have television or cable TV in the house because we find it much cheaper and convenient to watch what we want, when we want, via download services like netflix, hulu, or station websites. Because of all that video streaming we can easily hit a few hundred GBs per month for the house, and when we were really into a few HD shows at the same time we actually streamed 1TB of internet in a month, which was pretty shocking to me.
At 1 cent per MB that would be a $10,000 bill with this 'free' plan, while through TWC it was $45.
However, I work at a nonprofit that provides computers for low income families, seniors, and students. For many of them this is their first computer, and for many of them all they are doing is simple research online, email, and some social networking... for that type of use I could see this really helping them out. The cheapest deal in town right now is $20/mo for 768kbps DSL (which requires a phone line), or $25/mo for 768kbps cable (no phone line). $25/mo is a huge price to pay when you are on a fixed income (of which food and housing eats 90% of), and I am sure many of them could save a ton of money on this type of plan.
The problem as noted by CaedenV and others is FreedomPop's performance and price point. Their plan only appeals to a cheap niche. I can't see many of toms readers getting it, even assuming they are in one of the select cities.