No cell phone plan (Freedompop + Wifi?)

[trfie]

I am considering switching to Freedompop, which has a free plan, 200 cell minutes + 500 texts/month, and then using freetone for supposedly, unlimited Wifi outbound minutes and 500 incoming Wifi minutes (am giving up google products due to their unethical behavior for some time). I have not used more than 200 cell minutes/month for the past year, as I am almost always on Wifi. If I end up using more than 200 cell minutes or freetone changes the terms of the agreement, I could try another Wifi app (and can always supplement Wifi minutes with Signal, Viber, etc).

Has anyone tried something like this? I know there are lots of complaints about freedompop but there are detailed guides online on how not to get overcharged.

Edit: freetone doesn't get good reviews, lots of advertising.

[Lucky C]

I've been using FreedomPop for years. Yeah it's not ideal but for free it is definitely worth it. One consideration is that voicemail is $3 per month. If you only get voicemails once in a while it can be annoying... if you get one voicemail do you pay to listen to it even though it's probably not important?

If you need extra services for a certain month, like voicemail, more data, more minutes, it's very easy to just pay for a month of premium service and then cancel it next month. Much cheaper than having to pay every month.

There is a small delay in the audio but it's not bad. Used to be worse. Their customer service also used to be worse but lately I don't have any complaints.

They sell refurbished older but good quality phones. Just got a Samsung Galaxy S5 for something like $120. It's an old phone according to some people but it's new to me! Pretty cheap way to get a "new" phone since a price that low would usually require a contract for most services.

[Sclass]

Yeah I use this. I have four freedompop phones. At $3 a month I couldn’t resist. Same experience as Lucky C.

The reception can be spotty depending on where you are. It keeps getting better but I worry that I’ll get stuck in an area with no 3g in an emergency. Hasn’t happened yet but I live in the greater Los Angeles area.

They have the occasional outage too. It’ll shut down for day every couple of years. It is disconcerting when my nav app stops working for a day. I think it is my phone but then all my phones go dead. Rare but annoying.

The charges thing is easy. Just disable rollover (you have to pay for this option) and automatic data top up. The,careful to click the no thanks link for special international long distance packages that pop up.

I get old iPhones on eBay and set them up. I pay less than half the price as the used iPhones on the freedompop website. You just need to make sure they are not locked, iCloud, carrier or password. I get sprint phones sold Off of contract.

The app is crappy. Often my call goes to voicemail before I can answer. Also I cannot use Siri to dial calls. But hey, it’s $3 a month for smartphone access.

Hmm...time to punch out what an $80 Verizon package will cost me over 10 years at 10%. Argh, roughly $16k. Yup, I’m going to use freedompop for awhile.

[thegreatvoid]

I haven´t had a cellphone plan for almost 2 months. Before that I had a company phone,which I hardly ever used.
Now I just communicate with people by whatsapp or mail.

Phones are passé .

[ether]

Just a heads up, go create a google voice account:
https://voice.google.com

you will get another number and free voicemail and in google voice set it so any calls gets forwarded to your freedompop number. BAM free voicemail

[C40]

Just a heads up, go create a google voice account:
https://voice.google.com

you will get another number and free voicemail and in google voice set it so any calls gets forwarded to your freedompop number. BAM free voicemail

That's what I use.. but for the OP:

... (am giving up google products due to their unethical behavior for some time)..

[Astra]

Serious question: can someone explain to me how Freedompop works? Their website is kinda ominous. What is their buisness model here? Do they sell your data? Push paid plans on you? Is there some fine print that you pay humongous fees if you go over the free minutes/texts? Or do they mainly make money selling used phones?

(Seriously, 200 min talk, 500 texts and 500MB data sounds like more than enough)

[Chris]

can someone explain to me how Freedompop works?

They make their money on fees and marketing. It's partly a freemium model (you try the free service, like it, and upgrade your package), partly nickel-and-dime fees (2 cents per MB over the free limit), and partly marketing spam. They also have a lower cost of service than some other carriers (MVNO on the #4 network in the US, poor customer service).

That's not to say it doesn't work for some people. Similar service with less hassle from another provider would be ~$10/mo.

[prognastat]

I'm looking at possibly switching to Freedompop, but read that people are prone to get tricked in to paying fees by their automatically set up services etc.

Does anyone have a sort of step guide of how to set up their service start to finish to avoid any extra fees?

[trfie]

I'm looking at possibly switching to Freedompop, but read that people are prone to get tricked in to paying fees by their automatically set up services etc.

Does anyone have a sort of step guide of how to set up their service start to finish to avoid any extra fees?

Here is a guide http://www.cranialborborygmus.com/freed ... ummies.htm but I think it could have been done better, is very long and scary, but I think mostly it is due to being poorly written.

But I found another deal - those who have xfinity for internet can get unlimited minutes and texts for $3/month. https://thefinancebuff.com/xfinity-mobi ... rizon.html
Has anyone used this? If I don't get negative info on it, I would much rather do this than deal with the hassle of freedompop.

[Sclass]

I think it’s easy. I just go with the free package. I think they made me sign up one of my later phones for a paid deal but I had 30 days to cancel to get it back to free. And I did and so it’s free. I just don’t click on the offers to upgrade my service. They make the no thanks link very small.

Also no auto top up on data.

I don’t think it’s all that complicated. I have four of these phones. They work but at some point I’ll go to a more reliable service.

Don’t switch your service. Just start up a new phone and if it works for you port your number. They’ll make you pay $20 to port the number but do that only if you like it. The coverage can be spotty and that’s an issue if you always have to be linked in. One big issue is battery life. The 3g on all the time is a real drain.

[Wads]

I'm trying to figure out how to use Google Voice as my primary phone. My plan is to pay $20 to port my number to GV and then cancel my service with Verizon. Here is my concern. Since I would no longer have a service I don't think GV would be able to forward calls to my phone which isn't an issue for me. My question is would I be able to view attempted incoming calls/text in Google Voice once I had Wifi and would I be able to make outgoing call/text when I have wifi?

[C40]

Yes, you can use google voice (well, actually Hangouts) without having any phone number or service. It works through wifi.

That said, I have had some issues with incoming calls not ever ringing or showing any notifications. Sometimes I'll go in the settings and see that a setting is wrong, fix it, and then it works. Sometimes I'll go make sure that setting is 'on', but it still doesn't work. Voicemails always work ok. So,... it may not work perfect for you. For me, it's good enough. I don't get many calls and those who do call me regularly know to just text 'call me' if they need to talk.

[prognastat]

I made the switch just over a month ago and so far so good. Google Voice provides SMS and Calling and Voicemail. I use the Hangouts app for it though as the Google Voice app refused to ring.

I ported my number to Google Voice, installed the Google Hangouts app and set it up with my google voice and the day before the billing cycle ended I enabled safety mode to turn off auto top up and then disabled safety mode. Only cost $0.21 that way. I also added enough friends to get the bonus 50 MB.

[Wads]

Thanks for the feedback. My number has just been ported and I'm able to make outing calls without issue. I am having some issues getting my phone to ring for incoming calls. My settings from hangout seem limited. I've looked at some youtube videos and it seems that im not able to get the SMS option in General Settings. Im not sure why but under this tab I would be able to make the needed changes. Did anyone else have this problem?

[prognastat]

If call forwarding is enabled it won't ring Google Voice, but instead will try to forward to the connected phone number.