FreedomPop announces free voice and data plans for iPhone

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http://www.zdnet.com/freedompop-announce...000028860/

[Speedy]

I love competition. I wish my local cable monopoly had some.

[onthedownlow]

Well, Sprint-compatible iPhone 4's and 5's prices will be holding steady or will raise (especially in the 4/4s' case) due to this.

I have a one of the original Evo 4Gs, with their service, and (finally) after they had a system update a few months ago, the quality and service has been outstanding. Definitely is nice to have a backup phone with no fees, and if you do Freedom Friends (search for it), you can easily add an additional 500MB-1GB of free data to your plan, per month, for 'life'.

My only gripe if the battery life is horrible on the Evo. I did purchase a double-capacity battery for it, and that helps, but the attractiveness of an iPhone on their service is tempting, especially from the battery perspective, as well as just the iOS advantage.

[Bill in NC]

So are these LTE or WiMax phones?

I've had terrible luck with Sprint WiMax phones, but would be happy to try a LTE phone on the free plan.

[onthedownlow]

3G/LTE (pending phone model) - no WiMAX on iPhones

However, on Android the actual voice calls are through VOIP and the app is used (transparently) for placing the calls and SMS/texts. The Android phones have a custom ROM for this, so everything is transparent and embedded nicely to the user.

For the iPhone, unless there is jailbreaking involved (doubt it), then their app just might needed to be ran for making calls - just like, say, if you have Ooma home phone service (or any VOIP), you can run their app on your iPhone to make voice calls using the Ooma service and not your phone carrier's service.

[cbelt3]

Meh.. it's sprint coverage. I don't see them making much investment in NE Ohio. Their infrastructure is pretty minimal. They claim '4G' but we've never gotten it to work.

[Acer]

I abandoned Virgin Mobile here in western PA because they used Sprint towers and it just did not cut it here in Verizon land. Sad, because I'd love to have an affordable minimalist plan for iPhone.

[sekker]

I'm still trying to find a good use for my freedom pop mifi.

But it's easy enough to try out if you have compatible hardware...

[DavidS]

Since I changed over to the AT&T Family Share Plan with 10GB and tethering/hot spot, I have not used my Freedom Pop. The main place that I needed to use it, it could not get coverage.