Hasta La Gadget!

Free 4G data carrier FreedomPop has launched in beta, offering cheap WiMAX for your iPad, tablet, or other gadgets, and the promise of extra if you coerce your friends into signing up too. The contract-free service kicks off with 500MB per month when you buy a USB modem or mobile hotspot – priced at $49 and $89 respectively – though FreedomPop will also be offering iPod touch and iPhone sleeves expected to ship in roughly a month’s time.

Those will be priced at $99 apiece, and the iPhone model includes a built-in battery. They share the 4G data connection – WiMAX, courtesy of Clearwire’s network – out via WiFi, just as with a regular mobile hotspot, which means other devices you might have can also get online when nearby.

Once you’ve chewed through your free 500MB, each subsequent gigabyte of data is priced at $10. There’s also a range of prepurchase plans for those who know they’ll want to use more, and which FreedomPop insists will save 20- to 40-percent on other carriers’ data deals. Another paid option will remove a speed cap.

Where it gets interesting is how you can earn more credit by taking part in promotions and referring friends. The exact amounts involved vary on the promotion – think along the lines of a few megabytes for watching an ad video, or 10MB per month if you refer a friend who goes on to use FreedomPop themselves – and the referral side of it is limited to 1GB each month.

Sign-ups are being handled on a first-come, first-served basis, and you’ll obviously need to be in a Clearwire-serviced area in order to use the 4G. FreedomPop expects to upgrade to LTE eventually, though that’s now believed to be taking place early in the new year rather than before the end of 2012, as previously suggested.

FreedomPop “free 4G” data service goes live is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

We have seen our fair share of iPod touch accessories in the past that actually enabled the iPod touch to function somewhat like a phone, although most of the time, it was limited to just VoIP calls and the ilk. Well, the FreedomPop is a $99 iPhone sleeve case which claims to transform your 4th generation iPod touch into an iPhone, offering 1GB of free data each month that ought to be more than enough to handle basic email and iMessage texting needs. Not only that, when you think about it, there are no contractual commitments to be tied down to, which is a good thing, is it not?

Just how does FreedomPop achieve this? Well, FreedomPop relies on a 4G LTE hotspot that has been constructed right into the case, so that the iPod touch can gain access to the Internet at extremely high speeds, over Wi-Fi if necessary as well. Heck, you can even be your very own hotspot if you want to. Of course, this is one pseudo-convergence device that you might want to overlook if a dedicated smartphone is what you have on your shopping list.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPod touch (2012) enters the fifth generation , Additional iPod touch features revealed [Rumor],

FreedomPop’s free-“4G”-for-all plans are clearer now that it’s started taking pre-orders on its $99 iPod touch sleeve. The free data allocation has been halved to 500MB, with each additional gigabyte costing $10, with the company offering bulk discounts to heavy users. Marketing VP Tony Miller also told TechCrunch that the iPod sleeve wasn’t a high priority until public clamor forced a shift in its plans, but said that an Android-compliant version of its gear was “on the roadmap.” There’s video after the jump.

Continue reading FreedomPop’s $99 WiMax iPod touch case promises an iPhone without the bills (video)

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Internet

FreedomPop’s $99 WiMax iPod touch case promises an iPhone without the bills (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Jul 2012 12:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s been quite a little buzz building around FreedomPop thanks to its ambitious plans to provide freemium wireless Internet to everyone in the United States, not to mention its peculiar 4G-friendly iPhone cases.

As it turns out, that’s not all that the Niklas Zennstrom-backed company has been working on behind closed doors. FreedomPop has just announced that it plans to release another 4G-capable case — this time meant for use with the iPod Touch — and has already begun taking pre-orders for the $99 gadget.

“We’ve had thousands of inquiries,” FreedomPop marketing VP Tony Miller told me. “[The iPod case] was further down on the roadmap, but we had to push it up.”

Like the iPhone case (the “Freedom Sleeve”) before it, the 4G iPod Touch case is basically a WiMax mobile hotspot that’s been designed to wrap around a device instead of sit next to it. Your mileage with the thing is going to vary considering WiMax’s limited footprint, but the company plans to release an updated model compatible with Sprint’s new LTE network in due time. For now though, interested users are going to be in for a bit of a wait — Miller says that the iPod case should be in the wild within “two months at the latest” as actual production of the device hasn’t yet begun.

That said, the company’s marketing machine has already kicked into high gear — the company has said that the new case effectively turns an iPod into an iPhone. It’s a juicy message for sure, not one that’s true right out of the gate as users will have to get set up with a VoIP service like Skype to make the phone bit a reality. FreedomPop has cryptically hinted that the ability to make voice calls may soon be folded into its wireless service though, so that statement may ring truer down the line.

If this iPod case concept sounds eerily familiar, it’s because Sprint essentially did the exact same thing about two years ago with the ZTE-made Peel. Well before Sprint finagled a deal to sell the iPhone, interested consumers could pick one up and shell out $29.99/month for 1GB of 3G data. Despite the obvious similarities — I’m told that ZTE may be on deck to produce FreedomPop’s iPod case — Miller claims that no one on the team had heard of the Peel until they began doing research into the feasibility of such a product.

FreedomPop’s twist on the device (if you haven’t yet heard) on the other hand grants users 500MB of free monthly Internet access, as well as some bonuses for playing nice with others. As I’ve mentioned before, FreedomPop is really trying to play up the social component of its freemium Internet service — users can share portions of their data allotments with each other, and can score an additional 10MB for each new user they refer to the service.

Miller also let slip a few details on the sorts of rates the company will offer for users who need more than 500MB/month. Those in need of just a little more bandwidth per month can pay the normal $10 for each additional gigabyte, but the company also plans to offer low-cost data plans for really heavy users. Miller wouldn’t break down the tiers specifically (mostly because the company hasn’t quite ironed them all out yet), but revealed that the company plans to run with an aggressive pricing model — FreedomPop’s data plans are said to cost between 20% and 50% less than similar data buckets from major carriers. Take the near-standard $50 for 5GB bucket for example: under FreedomPop’s purview, that same chunk of data access would users a relatively scant $25 to $40.

If it seems like FreedomPop is spending too much time and effort focusing on iOS devices, fear not — Miller also confirmed that Android is “on the roadmap,” though exactly how far down that is on the company’s list of things to do is still unclear. Then again, this iPod case wasn’t supposed to happen for a while, so who knows how long it’ll be before the first Android-friendly FreedomPop cases hit the streets.

Pre-orders for FreedomPop’s WiMAX iPhone case began in May with the company offering 500MB of free data for those willing to pay $99 for the case. The company is hoping to shift free customers onto a paid model later on, but for now is offering the data for free. The case makes use of ClearWire’s WiMAX, but GigaOm reports that FreedomPop will be leveraging LTE in the future.

FreedomPop is said to have signed a deal with the Now Network that would make use of 3G and 4G services later on in the year. The company plans to offer an iPhone case that will have WiMAX, LTE, and CDMA radios for the best possible coverage. As the licensor’s LTE network becomes more robust in 2013, FreedomPop will begin to phase out the WiMAX radios and rely primarily on LTE.

500MB of free LTE access every month doesn’t sound so terrible. More data can be acquired too, with FreedomPop hoping users will leverage social networks to promote the brand and earn up to 1GB of access. FreedomPop customers can also transfer data between each other’s accounts if they’re feeling particularly generous. Even if you go over the free limit, data can be purchased outright as normal at one cent per megabyte.

FreedomPop to add LTE by the end of the year is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.