“Upstart mobile carrier FreedomPop is announcing this week its first support for the iPhone, offering a variety of free and low-cost plans in conjunction with Apple phones that work on Sprint’s network,” Ina Fried reports. “”
“The company will offer ‘like-new’ refurbished iPhone 5 handsets directly for $349, while customers can also bring their own Sprint-compatible iPhone 4, 4s or iPhone 5,” Fried reports. “FreedomPop’s free plan comes with 200 voice minutes, 500 text messages and 500 megabytes of data per month. Other plans start at $5 per month.”
“‘This is going to be a big step for us,’ CEO Stephen Stokols said in an interview. Until now, FreedomPop’s phone service worked with only a handful of older Android models,” Fried reports. “The iPhone 5, Stokols said, has the benefit of having LTE, which he said offers the best performance for FreedomPop’s voice-over-IP service while being at least moderately affordable.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Can FreedomPop destroy pricing for AT&T And Verizon? – April 4, 2012
This company wants to give you free Wi-Fi – October 3, 2012
And where is that availability ?
Use to have Sprint n dealt with CRAPPY service way too long!
But for free I can now keep a spare phone around for emergency use in my house.
I don’t live in the US, so can’t take advantage of this offer, but it certainly seems a very compelling idea.
The big US carriers are ripping off their customers and this looks to be an interesting alternative which significantly lowers the costs of using an iPhone. If the big carriers have any sense, they should be worried.
Smart people realise that SIM-only deals are a good idea. You buy the device outright rather than paying increased monthly charges to finance it and then when you choose to upgrade, it can be as soon as the next week or several years later. You sell your old iPhone and buy a newer one. It’s a very attractive deal for iPhone users because old iPhones maintain significant value when sold second hand and that offsets the cost of buying the next one.
If this sort of scheme takes off, I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see retailers, or even Apple, offering attractive iPhone purchasing deals with credit rates that are better than those usually offered by carriers.