I’ve hopped aboard the FreedomPop bandwagon. This is a “free” wireless Internet system. In short, you make a deposit on a wireless hotspot device (and should get your deposit back if you return the device), and then you can connect your computer, smart phone, or tablet to a broadband network wherever you are. There are, of course, a couple of catches. First the FreedomPop network is not available everywhere. Second, for free you get only 500MB per month. You can upgrade to larger data amounts for incrementally higher costs. I opted for the free setup. I’ve only had the device a couple of weeks, but haven’t had any problems with it.
There’s an excellent review of FreedomPop at Mobile Magazine. That’s where I stole the photo…
Here’s some info from the FreedomPop site:
FreedomPop’s mission is to deliver free, fast, wireless internet to all.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Los Angeles, FreedomPop is a new wave telecom company backed by Skype Founder Niklas Zennstom’s Atomico, Mangrove Capital, and DCM. The FreedomPop Team consists of seasoned web and telecom entrepreneurs who are committed to providing to customers wireless internet services in new and innovative ways.
Through our innovative model, FreedomPop is able to offer customers 500MB of free high speed internet per month — this at a time when wireless internet providers are increasing prices, throttling speeds, and adding additional fees for access. The FreedomPop solution offers consumers a free alternative, which we believe will help to restore balance to the wireless data industry and will help to ensure that no American is left off the digital grid.
FreedomPop’s high speed wireless internet service runs on Clearwire’s 4G WiMax network. The service will expand to include Sprint’s 4G LTE network in 2013.
