FreedomPop Launches Beta Pay-As-You-Go WiMAX Data Service

By Karla Robinson
October 2, 2012

FreedomPop is a startup looking to provide every American free wireless with a pay-as-you-go service that offers 500MB of data each month at no cost.
Users do, however, have to buy hardware to access the free wireless. They can opt to pay a refundable deposit for a “Freedom Spot” hotspot or the USB dongle “Freedom Stick.”
FreedomPop also will offer $99 iPhone and iPod cases in four to six weeks that double as a hotspot — or triple as a battery charger, as is the case for the iPhone option.
“For the time being, the touted 4G service will come courtesy of Clearwire’s WiMAX network, but FreedomPop says it will switch to Sprint’s LTE spectrum sometime in early 2013,” Engadget writes. “In the meantime, though, you can expect speeds anywhere between 4 and 10 Mbps down, and 1 to 2 Mbps up.”
Consumers can pay for faster 4G; the company will also offer packaged deals, “hoping to recoup the costs of that free data by selling premium services, with three to start and more coming later,” the post states.
There are ways for users to add to their monthly free allotment by watching ads — a 20 second clip earns an extra 3MB — or recommending a friend, which gets users 10MB for every month they stay with the service.

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