FreedomPop launches free smartphone talk and data service (and a $100 HTC Evo)

By Jeffrey Van Camp Published October 1, 2013

freedompop phone launch htc evo design 4g — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Have you heard of FreedomPop? About a year ago, it became the first free cellular service provider, offering 500MB of data to anyone who buys its 3G and 4G Wi-Fi hotspots. To celebrate its anniversary, the *carrier will start selling its first smartphone, the HTC Evo Design 4G, and free service with it.

The HTC Evo Design 4G is a two-year-old Android phone, but not terrible when you consider its $100 price (without a contract). It has a single-core processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, and a 4-inch 960 x 540 pixel LCD screen. Most new smartphones retail for $600 and up.

Recommended Videos

So what’s the catch, you may wonder? Well, there isn’t one, exactly, but there are limits to what you get for free. FreedomPop offers 200 minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB of data for free each month. If you exceed this limit, you’ll have to pay $11 to upgrade to unlimited service. We covered FreedomPop’s service and pricing here.

We spoke with FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols who told us that he’s been waiting to launch a phone since FreedomPop first opened its doors. He believes that his company is proving that free and incredibly cheap wireless prices are possible.

“We needed a disruptive business model,” he told us. “The prospect had to be too good to be true. … we are giving away 200 free minutes, 500MB of free data, 500 free texts, and we can deliver unlimited everything for $10.99. That’s 92 percent cheaper than AT&T.”

And he is right about one thing: Carriers like Verizon and AT&T are overcharging users. U.S. phone owners pay more for service than almost anyone else in the world.

Since launching, FreedomPop’s user base has grown consistently by about 25 percent a month, according to Stokol. He wouldn’t share precise user numbers, but says that the carrier’s business model is working. To operate, it needed 30-40 percent of users to pay it something, and right now about 45 percent of those on the service are opting to pay a small premium to exceed the strict limits of the free service.

Still, “more than half of our user base doesn’t pay us a penny” said Stokol, and that’s how he wants it, telling us more than once that the “Internet is a right, not a privilege,” a saying that is echoed on FreedomPop’s website. He said that even as FreedomPop offers more expensive phones, it will always have a $100 option.

*FreedomPop, like many other small cellular providers, runs off of Sprint’s 3G and 4G LTE network. Soon, other Sprint phones will work on FreedomPop’s network.

Topics

Jeffrey Van Camp

Former Digital Trends Contributor

As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…

Mobile

The next iOS 18 update is on its way. Here’s what we know

The iPhone 16 sitting on top of orange mums.

When iOS 18.2 released just over a week ago, it unlocked a lot of long-awaited features like Image Playground, Visual Intelligence, and improvements to writing tools. Now, it seems like another update could be just around the corner: version 18.2.1.

MacRumors found evidence of the update in their analytic logs, a source that has supposedly revealed quite a few iOS versions before release. Given that this is a minor update, it isn't likely to come with new features or anything groundbreaking. Instead, it will most likely be targeted at bug fixes, although no specific problems have been named. You should expect this update to drop either in late December or early January, but a year-end release is more likely.

Mobile

If your iPhone can handle iOS 18.2, it can probably handle iOS 19

An iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 18, showing its home screen.

The last few iPhone updates have brought a lot of changes with them. Just take a look at iOS 18.2: It introduced a ton of AI-powered features that had never before been available. If you have an older phone, it's easy to worry that its hardware won't be up to snuff for the next round of updates. For now, you can breathe easy: If your iPhone can handle iOS 18, then it should also work with iOS 19, according to a new leak.

The news comes from the French site iPhoneSoft. Although Apple guarantees five years of support for its devices, some devices get supported for longer periods of time, but this tip suggests that any phone currently capable of downloading and installing iOS 18 will also work with iOS 19, although some features could be limited.

Mobile

Samsung has a smartphone design problem

Three Galaxy S24 Plus models laying on a table, including the white, gray, and yellow ones.

The year was 2015. Back when the obsession was making the thinnest phones out there. Chinese smartphone brands made their presence felt in the race, out-slimming the big boys. Vivo’s crown jewel was merely 4.75mm across.

Even Samsung partook and launched a phone that beat Apple at the cross-section game. A decade later, the wheels of smartphone design are turning back to slim phones.