There has to be a trick here. I mean I understand a business model based in most customers consuming additional services (like the $10 voice plan), but I'd just go around with my pockets full of SIM cards for the iPad.
I don't know if there's really a trick, just a business model counting on the fact that people will go over their free allotment.
I have a FreedomPop Rocket Sleeve that I use with an iTouch, had it for about a year now. I've never paid for more than the free 500MB bandwidth since I only use it in the rare times I'm out of a Wifi zone. And I'm pretty conservative with my data usage.
But FreedomPop is claiming 50% margin on their bandwidth, so I guess there are a lot of people buying more data. They must feel confident that this will carry on with the phones.
Wholesale bandwidth is significantly cheaper on Clearwire than regular cell networks. (Clearwire gets an average revenue of $11 per user per month. Rumor is that their wholesale agreement with Sprint is roughly $1 per GB, or $10 per subscriber per month.)
If those numbers are true, then giving users 500mb free bandwidth might only cost FreedomPop as low as 50 cents per month per user.
That makes sense. Considering that the "deposit" on the modem was $99 and the BOM is probably 50% of that, the device itself probably paid for the first 3-4 years of service.
Ironically, I also have Clearwire data service at home and I'm paying $24/mo for the exact same data (except it's uncapped and I'm using about 30GB/month).
Yeah, I got hit by the 99c fee, but I emailed them about it and they gave me a refund. Their customer service is pretty good, although it does take a while for them to get back to you.
I got a FreedomPop 4G device when I was having Internet problems with Time Warner in my apartment. I needed more than the free 500MB and it gets pricey pretty quickly. They hope to subsidize the free data users with monetizing other offers. In actuality, there are a lot of scenarios using FreedomPop where you have to pay for something (whether it be a device, overage charges, speed boosts, etc.). It's a good product, but it's a little "too good to be true" when it comes to their wording, in my opinion. I've had some glitches trying to downgrade my account but their customer service has been helpful each time and fixed the issue.
Comments
There has to be a trick here. I mean I understand a business model based in most customers consuming additional services (like the $10 voice plan), but I'd just go around with my pockets full of SIM cards for the iPad.
I don't know if there's really a trick, just a business model counting on the fact that people will go over their free allotment.
I have a FreedomPop Rocket Sleeve that I use with an iTouch, had it for about a year now. I've never paid for more than the free 500MB bandwidth since I only use it in the rare times I'm out of a Wifi zone. And I'm pretty conservative with my data usage.
But FreedomPop is claiming 50% margin on their bandwidth, so I guess there are a lot of people buying more data. They must feel confident that this will carry on with the phones.
FreedomPop primarily uses Clearwire's WiMax network.
Wholesale bandwidth is significantly cheaper on Clearwire than regular cell networks. (Clearwire gets an average revenue of $11 per user per month. Rumor is that their wholesale agreement with Sprint is roughly $1 per GB, or $10 per subscriber per month.)
If those numbers are true, then giving users 500mb free bandwidth might only cost FreedomPop as low as 50 cents per month per user.
That makes sense. Considering that the "deposit" on the modem was $99 and the BOM is probably 50% of that, the device itself probably paid for the first 3-4 years of service.
Ironically, I also have Clearwire data service at home and I'm paying $24/mo for the exact same data (except it's uncapped and I'm using about 30GB/month).
Just signed up - they've got loads of premium plan add-ons and "partner offers" to give you more free monthly data.
Looks like a freemium model.
* Edit - Some more ways they make money:
- setting to automatically top your account off if you get below 100 MB left is on by default
- $0.99 maintenance fee if you use less than 5 MB in a month (wow)
Yeah, I got hit by the 99c fee, but I emailed them about it and they gave me a refund. Their customer service is pretty good, although it does take a while for them to get back to you.
I got a FreedomPop 4G device when I was having Internet problems with Time Warner in my apartment. I needed more than the free 500MB and it gets pricey pretty quickly. They hope to subsidize the free data users with monetizing other offers. In actuality, there are a lot of scenarios using FreedomPop where you have to pay for something (whether it be a device, overage charges, speed boosts, etc.). It's a good product, but it's a little "too good to be true" when it comes to their wording, in my opinion. I've had some glitches trying to downgrade my account but their customer service has been helpful each time and fixed the issue.