LIVE: FreedomPop Steals a Page Out of the Dot-Com Internet Providers’ Playbook
Updated with full video – see below.
On today’s SiliconANGLE Live NewsDesk Show, (see live feed below or visit youtube.com/siliconangle to watch on-demand), we discuss freemium wireless data startup FreedomPop and its free voice + data wireless service.
Freemium wireless data startup FreedomPop has been dead-set on undercutting traditional wireless carriers on data plan costs since day one. Starting this summer, the company will offer a plan with various Android phones that gives users 500MB of wireless data access, 200 voice minutes, and unlimited messaging. For an extra $10 a month, the voice minutes goes to unlimited too. The company plans to release a handful of WiMAX-friendly Android smartphones when the service officially launches later this summer.
FreedomPop is more like Internet service providers in the original dot-com boom (think AOL) than an affordable wireless provider — it wants to take the basics all the way to free, and make money with add-on services. That is the play here: freemium data, make money with the add-ons.
Joining us now to tell us more about FreedomPop’s free voice + data wireless service is SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto. (See the live broadcast, embed below ~ if you missed today’s topic, check our YouTube channel for archived clips.)
Some of the things we’ll be discussing with include how FreedomPop is able to offer a plan with various Android phones, whether or not FreedomPop’s current deal has worked so far, the kinds of plans FreedomPop has, and whether or not this model will work in the long run.
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