Hi all! So great to be back on Woot with some top smartphones that come with our 100% free phone service. Please see below for the top FAQs (plus with a link to a more expanded set). I’ll also be here to answer any questions in this thread or through PM!
** 1. Is FreedomPop really free?**
Yes, by activating on the 100% free plan, you’ll be able to get 200 minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB of data for free each and every month. Just buy the phone and you’ll never have to pay another phone bill again. Upgrading to unlimited talk & text is only $10.99/month.
** 2. What network does FreedomPop use? **
FreedomPop uses Sprint’s 4G LTE and 3G networks. Calls and texts are made through FreedomPop’s VoIP messaging app, so you must have a data connection in order to send/receive calls and texts. Go to www.freedompop.com/coverage3g4g to view the full coverage. As a way to save your free data allotment, you can also connect to any local WiFi network, such as the one in your home or work.
** 3. Are there any special add-on services that I can get? **
One of our top value-added services is Premium Voice. If Premium Voice is active on your account, then your phone calls will be redirected through Sprint’s Voice Network, rather than going through VoIP. Adding Premium Voice costs $3.99/month.
** 4. What do I do after receiving my phone? **
After you get your FreedomPop phone, please go to Activate | FreedomPop. Enter in the MEID of your phone, along with your desired email address to be associated with your FreedomPop account. Follow the steps to get fully activated. You will select your FreedomPop phone number during the activation process.
To see an even more expanded FAQs, please check out this page of the FreedomPop Community Forum! Hope everyone has a great day!
I have two LG Optimus F3s from a previous FreedomPop Woot deal. I was just in Canada and they would not work at all. I think it has something to do with GSM vs CDMA. Would this phone work in Canada and does the free service cover Canada?
Picked up a Galaxy S3 last time FreedomPop was on here, and it’s serving me well. Coverage is as expected for Sprint, i.e. not as good as Verizon, but serviceable in my area at least. A few items you should note if you’re thinking about using this as your primary phone:
First, the free service is really free, but it’s also really bare-bones. You won’t get voice mail, MMS/group text, or a few other features you’d probably think were standard without paying a monthly fee.
Second, the phones all appear to be locked, and they do have a custom FreedomPop firmware loaded. While it doesn’t have as much cruft as it might, I’d still rather use a vanilla Android image. I haven’t tried to flash it yet, as it’s meeting my needs at the moment and I’m pretty confident that I won’t be able to install the FreedomPop apps that allow the phone to register/connect to the network without using their image.
Finally, and I think most importantly, the number you get is a VOIP number that’s part of FreedomPop’s network. So just like Google Voice, it won’t be registered in your name. So, for example, PayPal won’t let you verify transactions with your FreedomPop number. I’ve bumped into that issue and others with services not accepting my Google Voice number in the past, and I assume those same limitations will apply to the FreedomPop number. As another consequence of this setup, and something that to me wasn’t necessarily clear right off the bat, you will be using your minutes when making or receiving voice calls, even if you’re connected to WiFi.
All in all, the service is great for free, provided you get acceptable coverage in your area. I found the coverage map to be pretty optimistic, and since these phones are a little more expensive than the one I picked up, if you have a friend with a Sprint phone, you might want to scout out any critical service areas before buying in.
FYI - You’ll probably get the $19.99/mo plan free for one month. If you want free service after that you need to cancel that plan, of course, but then you are Automatically put on a $7.99/mo plan, so you’ll also have to cancel that to get the free service. You’ll probably have to search how to do that because freedompop does not make it obvious - It is simple, just not obvious. IMO, the $7.99/mo plan is the best option to have a smart phone that can minimally act as a smart phone. I bought 2 of the S3’s last time around and I’m satisfied with the service except that I cannot receive calls while connected to wifi.
Dealing with this company was a horrible, horrible experience for me. Be prepared to waste a lot of time trying to communicate with them to get their “free” phone service. I went back to my Tracfone.
I’ve been using freedompop for about a year now and I absolutely love it. I don’t use freedompop phone number, I just use my google voice phone number, which works great.
I couldn’t be happier with them. Dealing with freedompop customer service was a great experience for me (in contrast to what others have posted). It is not issue free, but neither was my phone when I had a deluxe plan from sprint.
My current freedompop phone is showing a little wear. When I was with sprint I would get about 1.5 years out of a phone. Now it will probably be a little less. I think I might get one of these.
I think the service area is 50/50 when you compare the CDMA band. I have 2 freedom pop phones. I wish they still offer just a plan flip phone but just the same… Here’s my experience/suggestions.
They worked as advertised out of the box. No registration/activation issues (till later)… read on
I keep one in my car as a back up on the free plan. It’s not that hard to add on if needed.
I keep one in my emergency bag. Same plan (this is where I would like just a plan clamshell phone.
If you want a backup phone, go for it. Service (sprint) has been solid and works everywhere I’ve tried it. Home, work, emergency meetup spot(s).
If you do have these as a backup, I suggest (here’s where I had an issue) you “test” them every month. Pull out the phone, turn it on, send/rcv a text and make a call, receive a call. I had one of the phones not want to connect, then it said it wasn’t activated. I ended up wiping the phone, started all over. This was after having it for 5 months. It worked fine for the 1st 3, then I lapsed in my testing the phone. Maybe it doesn’t like being dormant for 40+ days. But it’s fine now.
The phones are pretty solid. Got the Kyocera Hydro and a samsung.
To avoid data usage, I turned off ALL the apps that use data and I leave the WiFi on when I shut off the phone so when I do turn them on, they use my home WiFi to avoid using any data from the plan. I do test them off wifi to make sure all is working.
Was looking at getting a wifi hotspot but the webpage leaves a something to be desired when it comes to “shopping”. Example: was looking at the hotspot devices, clicked on one and it’s trying to sell me VOICE services…
20 bucks is a good deal for a spare phone to keep in your glove box, back pack or in the kitchen/basement in case of emergencies. As for a primary phone, prices seem better then most. I pay 40 a month for my Project FI phone (wife uses it) for 2gb of data. Unlimited everything else but it uses both TMO and Sprint’s network. Wish FP would too.
You can downgrade online by logging into your account>click on My Account > Plans and My Account > Services. You will then click on the Details and Plan Management button. To remove any added services click on the View Details button.
The device is required to be activated with FreedomPop for at least 6 months before it can be unlocked/ released.
Understanding you don’t have VOICE service (non-GSM phones) but I seen you did have a wifi hotspot device that works on GSM and lists GLOBAL plans. One could fight and click on each of the hotspot devices but it would be nice if they listed which is GSM and which are CDMA. Not sure if ANY shown on your product website are GSM as none look like the one I found. It’s listed as FREE but a 30.00 activation charge, free 200mb Novatel Wireless MiFi 2. Are there other GSM devices (such as phones too) one could get instead of CDMA?
So the suggestion is, make it easier to FIND the device you want by listing the cell type it’s compatable with on the device label.
I have freedompop for my kids 9 and 11. In my area the service works great. My son had the Nexus 5 and my daughter has the LG G2. The Nexus 5, although a nice phone, will NOT OTA update to lollipop 5.1.1, this whole forum discusses that problem https://forums.freedompop.com/discussion/9806/android-5-1-1-update-verification-failed. It will continue to try and update over and over (using your data if your not on your wifi), but the verification key is missing. Apparently this stumped the people at freedompop and they chose not to remedy this. If you want to manually flash your device and put on your own ROM, that’s an option- but flashing a ROM is not for people that don’t know what they are doing, you can brick the device if not done properly. Because of this issue, I think my daughters LG G2 is a better phone, it had no issues updating and the specs are at least as god as the Nexus 5.
It still works fine, I just wish that freedompop would have been able to get the proper keys for the Nexus 5 so that the OTA update would go through.
Service is decent where I live in Fort Wayne,IN. but you can’t go by their coverage maps. We are pretty lucky where we are at regarding service. I really can’t complain because all the free stuff works pretty well. The voice is not the best (like VOIP over a cell phone data), but really most people text anyway. The texting app has something to be desired especially with regards to sending and receiving photos- doesn’t quite work right. You can’t use other 3rd party texting apps, except hangouts use to be an option. My kids use Google hangouts, but something has changed with freedompop since they got their phones where you can’t port that number to hangouts anymore. https://forums.freedompop.com/discussion/13556/porting-number-from-google-voice That forum may have workarounds, I wasn’t concerned, since my kid’s phones work fine. I did have a coworker recently purchase a phone and they could not set up the google hangouts to work as their texting app.
I got one a few offers back. The service was awful in my area. It was like I could only get texts or phone calls if I was outside on a sunny day in months without r in them. The phone was unlockable (it said it was in the description when I bought it) and so I took it to another provider and the phone works fine.
I got a LG G2 last month still can’t make calls on 3G. Customer service is abysmal they just keep telling me to upgrade my account. Good thing I like the phone.