FreedomPop is a free wireless internet and mobile phone service provider based in California, selling mobile phones, tablets and broadband devices for use with their service. The company has been considered a threat to US carriers and its latest endeavor in this direction shows best just how dangerous it could prove to be to the oligarchy of AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and others.
Today, the wireless carrier is introducing two new options for globetrotting users of its Free Talk and Text app. The first, which features a free base tier of 100 minutes and paid country-specific and unlimited plans starting at $5 per month, offers international calling to about 30 countries – Mexico, the U.K., China, and India, to name a few. (The program will expand to around 100 markets in the near future.) The second program ingeniously allows subscribers to skirt around pricey rates by using local digits. For $9, a customer who lives in New York, for example, can save co-workers in India from paying international fees by providing a Mumbai forwarding number.
FreedomPop has added free international calling to its list of mobile services, which makes its service even more enticing. FreedomPop’s free plan brings 200 local call minutes, 500 text messages, and 500 MB of data for LTE-enabled devices. Phone calls and text messages are sent through the FreedomPop app, which operates over a WiFi or 4G LTE connection. The same goes for the new feature that adds free international calls. Users who need more minutes can subscribe to a $4.99 monthly plan, which offers rates that FreedomPop says are more than 75% lower than what carriers and VoIP providers currently offer.
Finally, FreedomPop will also offer users anywhere in the world an international number, in order to allow contacts from other countries to make international calls as if they were local. “For example, a customer based in Los Angeles can get a Mexico City phone number so family members based in Mexico can call at local rates, or vice versa. The service costs just $4.99 per month, yet can save international callers hundreds of dollars a year,” the company wrote.
Hopefully, the world will move to all VoIP-based calling, which will remove international roaming costs. Of course, that’s not going to happen anytime soon, because providers are operating on an antiquated system for the sake of making money, but FreedomPop appears to be well ahead of the curve. Ideally, we’d only pay for a data plan, and all phone calls would happen over VoIP, where any data used simply gets taken out of our monthly data bundle.
Steven Sesar, FreedomPop’s COO, said the following:
“FreedomPop’s mission has always been about ensuring that everyone has access to affordable and essential communication services. Free international calling is the next step in giving consumers true freedom to connect with friends, family and colleagues across the world. We know there is high demand for international calling, especially around the holidays, and what better holiday gift than to provide a free international calling service to any smartphone user.”
FreedomPop is also opening another international-centric service that will reduce international fees. The service lets people use country-specific forwarding numbers so that people can contact them from, say, India, and not have to worry about fees.