This bears reposting.
OK, I have 3 Freedom pop phones (me and my two sons). 2 Samsung galaxy SII’s and a Galaxy SIII for me. Two of the phones are located well with the city limits of Austin, Texas and one is in Hunstville, Texas. The good news - they kind of work OK’ish when you’re in WiFi. The tech support is helpful and intelligent. The cost is crazy cheap. we were able to port our old T-Mobile numbers onto the FP devices. The bad news - There is almost no 4G access for any of these three phones in any city I’ve tried them for in Texas (I’ve tried them in all the major cities. The software is BETA and it feels like it. They are VOIP when you’re in WiFi (and VOIP when yo’re out in the world too - hence the need for 4G) so if someone is downloading 47 gigs of games and watching netflix your call quality will be almost unintelligble.
In short, they kind of work, but proceed with caution.
This is not really used as a voice phone as FreedomPop configures it. The phone has a voice function, but it is entirely over cellular data. It’s the same as using Skype or Talkatone on an iPad. The phone comes with the ability to use Sprint’s 3G and 4G network, attempts to use 4G whenever possible, and uses 3G service if there’s no 4G network. If you place a voice call using this phone, then it is converted to digital data and goes over the 3G or 4G cellular data network using FreedomPop‘s app – which really, really, really sucks. I tried using this phone to make some calls over a month, and no one could hear me. Not a single person. It was absolutely horrible. I guess it would be possible to download Skype or some other VOIP app to use voice on this phone but I have not tried it.
I believe that the phone will not stay on to receive data unless you constantly press the power button to enable it. It will look like it is on, but it is actually asleep. Anyone calling you will not make your phone ring. This is a hassle, obviously.
I rarely talk on the phone, so it’s taken me a while to figure the above out. FreedomPop’s allotted 500 minutes and 500 texts allowed for this phone are kind of ridiculous, given the fact that both of the apps used for voice calls and texts on this phone are just data-driven.
I have kept this phone and carry it around because it is good at getting my emails. It’s a free way to check on your emails while traveling around. Just don’t expect to use it much for voice calls and don’t expect it to work well as a voice phone (eg it won’t ring when folks call you unless you have it completely powered up). The phone does give up up to 500Mb of free 3G data per month, so that’s nice. Its web browser works OK within the coverage area, and I am pretty pleased with being able to view my emails while traveling around.
I wrote more about Freedompop on a personal blog post at:
Well, that COULD have been a pretty good solution for a backup phone for my elderly parents IFF they had coverage in my town…
Just install YouMail. Free and works great.
Optionally you could use google voice, but for true voicemail ease, YouMail is the way to go.
Bought one of these on Groupon for my daughter who lives in San Francisco. Sounded like she was talking under water and couldn’t make out a word she said. Their website stinks, and customer service was unreachable.
As a Virgin Mobile customer, always looking to save even a few more bucks, this looks like a great deal.
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Is the coverage in any way different from Virgin Mobile?
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Can I port my number once the phone is received? Being without my phone for any period of time is unacceptable.
Personally I can’t use Sprint in my area (despite the fact that their website shows I am in the “Good” coverage area right on the border of the “Best” coverage area).
There are far better options if you can use Sprint’s network though. Ting is TRUE pay as you go (and bring your own device).
Republic Wireless is $10/month for unlimited talk/text and $25/month for unlimited talk/text/data. They only support Moto G and Moto X (and a crappy legacy Defy XT they no longer sell) but if you are happy with a Moto, I don’t know how you pass on that.
Is it just me or is this the best price for a reconditioned iPhone 5 anywhere?
Couldn’t you just jailbreak the iPhone5 (then unlock it and unjailbreak if you want) and do however you like?
The ONLY place according to apple that CDMA iPhone5’s are is in China:
So all others are either GSM, or GSM+CDMA and should be fine for any carrier.
I live in Chicago where Sprint service is pretty good. I still have data drop outs and slow 3g/LTE/LTE Spark speeds. I would not trust it well enough to rely on it to make calls. But the rest of the network is pretty good for making calls and text messages. I would honestly shy away from this and look at TING.com they use sprints network and the price is cheap. We use to pay $120 for four phones on verizon with 700mins. Now we pay on average $40 a month for talk, text, internet. We only pay for what we use and since none of us are heavy users the price point is great. In the off chance we do use a lot of data or text the price is still competitive. I highly recommend checking them out before signing up for freedompop.
Thank you. We encourage our vendor reps to participate in the forums and answer questions. It’s something we offer that most sites do not.
Thank you for noticing and commenting.
And thank you to our FreedomPop rep for staying up late to answer questions.
Are the iPhone’s voice calls done via 3G/4G networks using an app or via the wireless ones?
Would I be able to receive calls if I have the wireless connection off?
Note that their person responding to comments on here hasn’t touched any of those involving the Yelp reviews. Nice job cherry picking the comments there. According to the BBB they have been responding to complaints and out of 163 closed complaints only 11 people have been left unhappy with the resolution leaving them with an A- rating. Not bad there but having that many complaints in just less than two years is a really bad sign. Their customer service needs a drastic turn around before anyone should consider them as a serious option cell or internet service. Perhaps if the BBB is right that they only have 50 employees it’s time to start doing some hiring if they expect to expand. And don’t outsource customer service, ever.
Not likely, with the exception of the iPhone, there is no sim card slot in the FreedomPop phones. FreedomPop runs on the Sprint network, which uses CDMA.
Also, I’d like to chime in with a a thumbs up for FreedomPop. I’ve been a customer for more than a year now, and I have been really satisfied with the service. It really is free, so long as you READ THE FINE PRINT.
I bought a sprint samsung galaxy victory on the ebai ($55) and did the freedompop BYOD ($20 activation), its 4G LTE (not wimax, being phased out!).
The service seems to work (Cincinnati has garbage sprint LTE though), no nefarious charges so far (still my first month).
I figure if everything is smooth for the next 2 months I will port my number and cancel the ptel account (though its only $5 a month, can’t beat free)
I chose Ting over Freedompop, for low cost service. I have a galaxy s3 and my bill for ting last month was 15.00 that was after tax.
Ting isn’t shady about it’s rates and has amazing customer service. Ting Mobile: Choose a smarter mobile plan
Freedompop has loads of complaints and you really can’t find any about Ting.
You can PM me if you have any questions about Ting. Here is a referral link that will get you 25 off of your first bill with them. That made my first 2 months of ting service free, which saved me 200 bucks from what I paid from sprint. That covered my ETF nicely, plus Ting gives you bill credit towards any ETF you pay as well https://zr3nff25ec6.ting.com/
I need to know the Apple model number of the iPhone, and if will it take an iOS 8 update when it is released. With that info I would consider a purchase.
From Apple’s site:
Model number on the back cover:
A1428: iPhone 5 (GSM model)
A1429: iPhone 5 (GSM and CDMA model)
A1442: iPhone 5 (CDMA model, China)
The A1429 model would be perfect!
No iPhone 5 uses WiMax.
I have some of the WiMax hotspots. They work pretty well if you have coverage. The Overdrive Pro also works on 3g, so that is better. I had one bad day where my iPhone decided to do an update while driving (I was on wifi after all!) It cost me about $12 extra for that. Not too bad over a 6 month period.
Just read where sprint is suppose to shut down
6, 000 wimax towers by the end of 2015. Not good for this phone company! This company has awful reviews. I knew it was too good to be true!
Freedom Pop will only have the super slow 3G service after Dec 2015. They are selling phones that will be obsolete but are not telling you that. They just tell you about their super fast 4G. DO NOT buy a WiMax phone if you want any type of speed after Dec 15. I am trying to get my money back already because of this deceptive advertising.
Anyone know if the voice quality is better if you shell out for the iphone? I mainly want it for voice calls, so if that doesn’t work well why waste time. Are long distance calls free? What about to Canada?