While they can be cheap, one must be very careful.
When an unrecognized charge showed up on a credit card, I could click to get a phone number, but the phone merely states unless you pay for service you do not get any technical support, or opportunty to speak to a live person, or even billing assistance (not stated, but clear) since other numbers give the same menus, and same recordings. I am certain they count on you paying say $1.99 every month rather than pay a fee of about $6.00 per month to have your billing questions answered (or even once to get rid of the fee),
If you end up with several devices you need careful records so you can logon correctly (one E-mail for each account), and probably use different credit cards for each phone. I bought several phones for the family with one credit card, and their billing does not tell you which phone or device created the charge, or what it is for.
Freedompop seems to be phasing out their cheaper GSM phones as I can no longer find the GSM version of the Samsung Galaxy S5. It seems to be CDMA only.
Donāt forget that if you fail to have any data activity on the network in 30 days, they will deactivate service on the SIM card. Longer and they will deactivate the SIM card. It works pretty well with T-Mobile digits if you want a second handset and donāt mind calling over data.
Looks like Freedompop is getting rid of their Sprint service. Accounts transferred to Ting, and offered a $6/month plus $4/GB plan until the end of the year. FP appears to now offer AT&T/GSM accounts only, going forward.
I assume this will work for anyone - if you enter a new email address on their website to create a new account, but dont order anything, youāll get an email offering a SIM for $.01 with free shipping. Iām not to optimistic about getting my phone unlocked to use FPās GSM service, but for a penny itās worth getting the SIM and trying.
I got the email a few days ago. I knew it wouldnāt last forever, but still sad itās coming to an end. I have two hotspots with them. One CDMA and one GSM. The CDMA hotspot is older and had the grandfathered 500mb/month free. I would go weeks without needing to use it, but when I did, it was a life saver. Iām going to be bummed to retire it.
The newer GSM hotspot has only 200mb/month free. (Both have an extra 50mb a month from āfriends.ā) I use the GSM hotspot account just for the sim because I have a car with internet capabilities and it was super easy to put the freedom pop sim in the car and get free data. Just canāt listen to Pandora every day or I would run out. I end up not using it much because my car is only 3G, so itās much faster just to use my phone.
Now I need to decide if I want to get another GSM data only sim so I can have an emergency hotspot. It usually ends up costing $10 more than they say it will, but it is truly free long-term, so I canāt complain.
Just checked their site. They know they are discontinuing their CDMA service, yet they are still selling a bunch of CDMA devices. That is terrible, but not surprising.
Anyone know the drop dead date for CDMA service on freedompop?
EDIT: FreedomPopās site is so wacky. Different prices and different devices depending on which link you use to get there. Now I donāt see any CDMA devices on their site.
I think it has ādropped deadā, at least for phone service - FreedomPop sends me to Ting now, I assume my service will die if I havenāt selected a new Ting plan before my next billing cycle. In hindsight, it obviously happened when they āupgradedā service to use the native dialing program rather than the FP app (when they forgot to mention the new provider). No clue about the hotspots.
I donāt understand the ongoing sale of CDMA phones, either. (Edit - after reading your edit, I checked and now see no CDMA devices as well.)
My wife said she used the hotspot with no issues on Monday, but I think I got the email after that. I have no desire to go to Ting, so Iām not going to mess with mine and just hope it falls through the cracks. Iāll try it this weekend and see if I get any service.