We just received this “love letter to FreedomPop” from Jamie Lyn, a single mother of two in Texas. She told us she hadn’t written anything since her last high school term paper, but she was inspired to sit down and write her love letter after learning about FreedomPop in an article she read here at CheapInternet.com.
If an article here at CheapInternet.com has helped you, please let us know.
I’m a single mother of two. Of course, that means I’m on a pretty tight budget so cell phones and internet service is a luxury in our house. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the information I found in your article on FreedomPop.
I’m far from being tech savvy. I’m pretty sure a gigabyte is bigger than a megabyte, but that’s about all I know. I’ve heard that there are ways for people to talk over the internet for free, to use it to replace their home phones. But my question was always, “If they can do that, why doesn’t someone invent a way for people to use their cell phones to access the internet?”
Like I said, money’s tight. There never seems to be enough at the end of the month. I knew I couldn’t afford the latest iPhone and one of those unlimited data plans. Nope, I just have a basic phone with a basic data plan. I know there are places out there where you can find free wifi hotspots, but I my sister always says free wifi spots are like men — there’s never a good one around when you need one. Besides, I think the managers at the Starbucks and McDonalds down the street were tired of seeing me mooch their free wifi.
One day I Googled “wifi hot spots” and stumbled across an article at CheapInternet.com about a company called FreedomPop. I’d never heard of the company.
FreedomPop gives you (well, actually, they gave me, but they’ll give it to you, too) a certain amount of free mobile internet usage every month. More about that later. But best of all, FreedomPop comes with no contract, no monthly fee, no rigamarole. Now don’t get me wrong — FreedomPop’s not completely free, but it’s so cheap that it might as well be.
The only wrinkle is that you need to know someone who already has a FreedomPop account and that person has to “invite” you to join the program. Then you buy a FreedomPop device (figure that will run you somewhere between $39 and $90). I started asking around and found out that one of my neighbor’s friends has a FreedomPop account. Turns out he loves the service and was happy to “invite” me. Why? Because as soon as he invited me, FreedomPop topped off his account with an extra 50 Mb of data. On top of that, we can transfer data between our accounts. So if he goes over next month (or any other month) I can help him out by transferring a little extra from my account over to his account. How cool is that?
FreedomPop makes the whole thing pretty darn simple, too. They gave me a choice of plans. That was perfect for me because I wanted to ease into it until I figured out if FreedomPop was right for me. I started off with their introductory 500 Mb monthly plan.
OK, let me admit something here. I had no idea how much data I use in a month and I wasn’t even sure how far 500 Mb would get me, but I figured I should start with the basics and see how it worked out. Here’s the good news. Much to my surprise, 500 Mb per month is plenty for me. The guy who “invited” me watches a lot of youtube videos every day. I assume he signed up one of FreedomPop’s bigger plans, but 500 Mb of internet is plenty for the basic stuff I do (like emailing, checking out my kids’ homework assignments and teachers’ comments, etc).
Oops, I got carried away talking about the basic FreedomPop plan and almost forgot the part about choosing my device. They give you a choice of devices. Since my needs are pretty basic, I picked what they’ve dubbed the Freedom Spot Photon. It’s smaller than my handbag (which reminds me — I really need to clean that thing out). If you need a device that’s capable of more, they’re available, too.
There’s only one thing I don’t understand about FreedomPop. How do they make money? I mean, seriously, how can you give your service away for free and still be successful in 21st century America? The guys who run the company are obviously smarter than I am.
I could keep telling you more about why I love FreedomPop, but I better stop now because this is starting to sound too much like one of those infomercials you see on TV at 3 a.m.
With love for FreedomPop,
Jamie Lyn
Ray Thackeray says
FreedomPop did not live up to their advertising and they cancelled my account. I returned their phone and now they will not reply, I can not reach any live person by phone and I have received no credit for the phone purchase or services not delivered. Are they going out of business?
CheapInternet.com Administrator says
They seem to be in business, and doing well. Sorry you had issues with them. What were the problems?
Jon McCullough says
My wife and I both have freedompop and think this is an absolutely fantastic service! For those that need more then the standard amount of data/minutes there is the ability to add those features for a very reasonable cost! Thank you FreedomPop!
– Jon