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FreedomPop - Now in tri-band LTE


iansltx

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it should not matter (but I realize they try to make it so) whether the 2 or 10 gig is for 'wireline replacement' or hotspot.

 

I know that is the same home router as clear, because I have a clear home router, and a clear hotspot.

 

My point is that, I won't pay 18$ for 2gig on a hotspot, when the same 18$ buys you 10 gig for a 'home' wireless.

 

They will be prying my 50$ unlimited clearspot from my cold dead hands.

Meh, you'll give it up after WiMAX goes dark in a couple years.

 

Also, by your logic, mobile broadband is not worth paying for. I can get an uncapped cable connection for $55 so why bother? Well maybe I want to use a computer or tablet out of WiFi range :)

 

And $20 is less than $50.

 

sent via my SIII on Tapatalk 4 beta

 

 

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Meh, you'll give it up after WiMAX goes dark in a couple years.

 

Thus, from my cold dead hands, or until they offer unlimited LTE :)

 

 

 

Also, by your logic, mobile broadband is not worth paying for. I can get an uncapped cable connection for $55 so why bother? Well maybe I want to use a computer or tablet out of WiFi range

 

my point was, they are selling 2gig for 18 on one hand, and 10 gig for 18 on another.

 

I would pay 18 for 10 gig on the hotspot if it was available. I would not pay 18 for 2 gig.

 

I would not pay 150 for the device for the 500 megs free, but ~50 for the device and 500 megs free would be tempting, but that still would be all but useless for me unless I can add on ~10 gig for ~20 bucks or unlimited for ~50.

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This just emphasizes how out of whack Ting's data rates are. Let's do some quick comparisons:

 

FreedomPop (500MB/2GB/4GB): $0/$18/$29

TextNow (500MB/2GB): $19/$40 (includes unlimited texting and 750 and 2000 minutes, respectively)

VM: $35 for "unlimited" (actually 10GB) 4G and 2GB of 3G

VZW: $50 for 4GB

Ting (500MB/2GB/4GB) : $13/$42/$82.50 (not including $6 line access charge)

 

The difference might be somewhat justified if they offered some data roaming but they don't. Ting should not be charging more than VZW for data- no one should. I would think that Sprint charges all their MVNOs the same wholesale (per MB) rate for data, so I wonder what gives?

 

If you don't talk or text much (over cellular) but need the data (and Sprint native coverage is adequate) it seems like the best deal is to pair a FreedomPop or VM hotspot with a Ting handset. The MiFi would pay for itself within 7 months (on the 2GB plan) and you get access to SMR and 2600 LTE right away without waiting for the handsets to roll out (depending on your market), but who wants to juggle two devices like that? I get that Ting includes things that FreedomPop will try to nickel-and-dime you for like $1.99 for usage alerts, and their customer service is not nearly on the same level, but nearly 3x the price for the same network's 4GB, really?

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the website annoyingly keeps making you input your zip/address/email just to try to see what plans and devices they have.

I have had issues with the site in the past but today I breezed through and made my purchase in about two minutes.

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Thus, from my cold dead hands, or until they offer unlimited LTE :)

 

 

 

 

my point was, they are selling 2gig for 18 on one hand, and 10 gig for 18 on another.

 

I would pay 18 for 10 gig on the hotspot if it was available. I would not pay 18 for 2 gig.

 

I would not pay 150 for the device for the 500 megs free, but ~50 for the device and 500 megs free would be tempting, but that still would be all but useless for me unless I can add on ~10 gig for ~20 bucks or unlimited for ~50.

For somebody like me ,who already has the sprint hotspot @ 20 dollars a month, this could be a deal. After buying the modem I will break even at about 8 months.

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This just emphasizes how out of whack Ting's data rates are. Let's do some quick comparisons:

 

FreedomPop (500MB/2GB/4GB): $0/$18/$29

TextNow (500MB/2GB): $19/$40 (includes unlimited texting and 750 and 2000 minutes, respectively)

VM: $35 for "unlimited" (actually 10GB) 4G and 2GB of 3G

VZW: $50 for 4GB

Ting (500MB/2GB/4GB) : $13/$42/$82.50 (not including $6 line access charge)

 

The difference might be somewhat justified if they offered some data roaming but they don't. Ting should not be charging more than VZW for data- no one should. I would think that Sprint charges all their MVNOs the same wholesale (per MB) rate for data, so I wonder what gives?

 

If you don't talk or text much (over cellular) but need the data (and Sprint native coverage is adequate) it seems like the best deal is to pair a FreedomPop or VM hotspot with a Ting handset. The MiFi would pay for itself within 7 months (on the 2GB plan) and you get access to SMR and 2600 LTE right away without waiting for the handsets to roll out (depending on your market), but who wants to juggle two devices like that? I get that Ting includes things that FreedomPop will try to nickel-and-dime you for like $1.99 for usage alerts, and their customer service is not nearly on the same level, but nearly 3x the price for the same network's 4GB, really?

 

I agree that Ting's data rates are expensive. However...

  1. They allow data pooling between multiple lines.
  2. They auto-adjust your data bucket, with no overages, depending on what tier you hit on a given month. So you don't end up paying $20 per month even if you only use 500MB during that month (they'll give you a few minutes/texts/MBs above their stated limit before bumping you to the next tier).
  3. Ting has to make their money somewhere. They subsidize the phones that they sell directly a little, so my guess is that the data fees recoup the comparatively heavier subsidies on smartphones. For folks like me who have brought multiple Sprint devices to Ting (so they didn't have to pay a subsidy) this seems a little unfair, but it is what it is. And, to be fair, I did buy three phones through them (all refurbs, so probably low subsidy).

Hopefully Ting will lower their data rates in the next few months. Under 1GB is okay I guess, but taking 1GB down to $20, 2GB to $30 and 3GB to $40 (or changing 3GB to 4GB and selling it for $50) would be great. We'll see though.

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As a phone geek I SOOO bad wanna buy this and play with it... but I really have no use for a hot spot.. between my work iPad and my two phones I got all the data I need.

 

NOW, if we start getting the 3 bands of LTE out here and I do not have a tri-band phone yet, I might throw the $150 at it...

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Per the FreedomPop rep that I've been emailing with, here are the plans for the LTE hotspot:

-4G LTE Only-
500MB - FREE

-4G LTE with 3G Fallback-
500MBs $3.99/mo
2GBs $19.99/mo
3GBs $28.99/mo
4GBs $34.99/mo
5GBs $39.99/mo
10GBs $89.99/mo

So the cheapest cost per GB (discounting the 500MB plans) is $8, at 5GB. Above that, you might as well just pay overages (1¢/MB). At that price point FreedomPop is a better deal than T-Mobile ($40 for 4.5GB) unless you're adding a line on T-Mobile. That's ignoring device costs on T-Mobile. And a bit less than Verizon or AT&T, though you have to pay for the device (but no contract!).

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I put in a fake email address and was able to pull up their full price list. In addition to the 3G/4G prices iansltx posted (which are known as their "Pro" (500MB) and "Premium" (2GB+) plans), these are the 4G LTE only plans:

 

Basic 1GB: $9.99/mo

Casual 2GB: $17.99/mo

Premiere 4GB: $28.99/mo

Premiere 5GB: $34.99/mo

Premiere 10GB: $59.99/mo

 

All of the above carry a $0.01/MB overage charge, whereas the overage on the 3G/4G plans is $0.02/MB on the Pro 500MB plan and $0.015/MB on the remaining Premium plans. The overage on the Basic (4G-only) 500MB plan is also $0.02/MB. Only the Pro and Premium plans get the first month free. Once 800 LTE is widely deployed it may be enough to go with a 4G-only plan.

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I put in a fake email address and was able to pull up their full price list. In addition to the 3G/4G prices iansltx posted (which are known as their "Pro" (500MB) and "Premium" (2GB+) plans), these are the 4G LTE only plans:

 

Basic 1GB: $9.99/mo

Casual 2GB: $17.99/mo

Premiere 4GB: $28.99/mo

Premiere 5GB: $34.99/mo

Premiere 10GB: $59.99/mo

 

All of the above carry a $0.01/MB overage charge, whereas the overage on the 3G/4G plans is $0.02/MB on the Pro 500MB plan and $0.015/MB on the remaining Premium plans. The overage on the Basic (4G-only) 500MB plan is also $0.02/MB. Only the Pro and Premium plans get the first month free. Once 800 LTE is widely deployed it may be enough to go with a 4G-only plan.

 

Nice find. After the first month I'll probably switch to an LTE-only plan since the MiFi won't be my only connectivity source. The rates are certainly cheaper...you give up 3G for it, but the rates are lower per GB at a given price level than Sprint proper across the board.

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Does anyone have any leads on a FreedomPOP tri-band USB stick? I want to put one on my own router with real router features. ;-)

 

At that point, you might as well buy one from Sprint at full price, then activate it on Millenicom. Even $6 per GB gets expensive when you're trying to use the connection as a wireline replacement.

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At that point, you might as well buy one from Sprint at full price, then activate it on Millenicom. Even $6 per GB gets expensive when you're trying to use the connection as a wireline replacement.

 

Oh, no, they'd be used for offnet access of the routers. We're talking <100 megs a month, hopefully less than 5 megs. I'm talking real routers, not the stuff people (typically) have in their houses. ;-)

 

I'd have another in a router I take with me. It'll have a USB or mPCIe from multiple networks that I'll use instead of a regular person's hotspot for emergency access places or when traveling.

 

I currently have as many fiber connections into my network as Sprint does to theirs in my county (and yes, they do have them). No need for wireline replacement. ;-)

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Oh, no, they'd be used for offnet access of the routers. We're talking <100 megs a month, hopefully less than 5 megs. I'm talking real routers, not the stuff people (typically) have in their houses. ;-)

 

I'd have another in a router I take with me. It'll have a USB or mPCIe from multiple carriers that I'll use instead of a regular person's hotspot for emergency access places or when traveling.

 

I currently have as many fiber connections into my network as Sprint does to theirs in my county (and yes, they do have them).

 

Makes sense. So either out-of-band access or emergency stuff. Peplink, MTik or something else?

 

Sounds like your solution is slightly more elegant than mine: have a device on each carrier and pick the one with decent service at the time :P

 

You could probably just buy this, turn off the WiFi and USB-tether it to your router. A little less elegant but it'd get the job done.

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Makes sense. So either out-of-band access or emergency stuff. Peplink, MTik or something else?

 

Sounds like your solution is slightly more elegant than mine: have a device on each carrier and pick the one with decent service at the time :P

 

You could probably just buy this, turn off the WiFi and USB-tether it to your router. A little less elegant but it'd get the job done.

 

Bingo. The RB411UAHR would let me have a WiFi hotspot, USB stick and mPCI-e with different networks and output via Ethernet. I could also forego the WiFi hotspot and broadcast WiFi instead. I use SSTP tunnels to connect back to my network and can use BGP and BFD to "dynamically" load balance and failover the various tunnels. If one mobile network fails, that tunnel is dropped and traffic uses the remaining tunnels to transfer back to my network. All traffic is NATed before leaving the router in my network, so only one IP is ever presented to the outside world. The load balancing would only be as effective as I set up the round-robin in the route selection based upon each network's typical throughput capability. I'd love to have the time to put together something with scripting to adjust the weighting of the load balancing based upon semi-realtime metrics.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Anyone actually received and activated one of these on FreedomPop yet? First impressions? I'm thinking of getting one for LTE hunting since the EVO sucks for that.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

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Anyone actually received and activated one of these on FreedomPop yet? First impressions? I'm thinking of getting one for LTE hunting since the EVO sucks for that.

 

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 4

They take an insanely long time to ship. 2-3 weeks. I guess they don't keep an active stock.

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They take an insanely long time to ship. 2-3 weeks. I guess they don't keep an active stock.

Same here.  I ordered mine a few days ago and had to pop them a question on Facebook to get shipping progress.  They are slow to get them out.  

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  • 4 weeks later...

Has anyone gotten any updates? I just called and apparently the device is back-ordered for another three weeks.

 

I really, really want to check out Sprint's TD-LTE network here and in Florida, but that's not going to happen unless I sign a contract with Sprint proper, it seems. Unless someone would be willing to let me borrow their MiFi or Zing...

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Has anyone gotten any updates? I just called and apparently the device is back-ordered for another three weeks.

 

I really, really want to check out Sprint's TD-LTE network here and in Florida, but that's not going to happen unless I sign a contract with Sprint proper, it seems. Unless someone would be willing to let me borrow their MiFi or Zing...

They sent me an email about two weeks ago stating that they would reset my start date for my free data and that my device would ship "soon". About to prod them for another update.

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  • 2 weeks later...

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