Unless you are a regular to this site that already knows the benefits of ditching those overpriced monthly contracts that offer you a bit of savings on a phone, you can do yourself a favor by taking two minutes of your time to read this post. First off, if you Googled your way to finding a free or cheaper cellular plan, congratulations, you’re here. If not, and you just stumbled upon this post as a freak happening, then congratulations to you too. It’s time you learned the secret of what an MVNO is and how much money you can save yourself in just a few months.
An MVNO is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator. These are companies that go to the four major providers and offer to make a bulk purchase of lines in an effort to get a better rate than you or I ever could. Think of them as a family plan with 50,000 lines. They get a pretty great discount and can resell that service to us for less than we pay for a full line – and they still make money doing it. These carriers have been around for a long time, but today we are seeing a new breed of MVNO’s coming on strong. These MVNO’s use Wi-Fi calling and VoLTE technologies to offer amazing packages for little to no cost to you.
The two leaders in this technology are FreedomPop and Republic Wireless. Google has made a push into this technology with their new Wi-Fi/Cellular program, but the higher cost eliminates them from really being a solid contender right now. Republic also tiers their pricing based on the services you need, so unless you are just getting an emergency phone, the $40 a month bill isn’t much less than a standard MVNO will offer you for service anyway. This leaves FreedomPop as the lone provider of 100% free cellular minutes, texting and data.
Yes, you read that correctly. FreedomPop offers you 100% free monthly cell service with no questions asked. Their free tier isn’t one of those use your phone for 5 minutes, send a text or download an email and you’re done services either. For that freebie price, you get 200 minutes of talk and 500 text messages. You also get 500MB of LTE data, plus the opportunity to earn even more with sharing and special offers. Overall, for the lighter user, FreedomPop could become a primary line, especially if you use things like Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp or Skype for communicating as well.
Now, FreedomPop isn’t all roses and rainbows. Many people make the move to FreedomPop without understanding a few key components of the system. First off, FreedomPop saves you hundreds of dollars by selling you factory refurbished devices rather than new ones. Sometimes, devices show up that just shouldn’t have made the trip to you. Don’t panic though, you have 30 days to send it back and get a different one. Just chat online or find them on social media to get this started. Next up, they are refurbished devices, so make sure you get a NEW battery for them. The $5-10 battery will make it perform like new many times, so it is money well spent. Finally, paying $50-100 for a new device seems like a great plan, but remember, those are only $200 devices new, they won’t have much power in them. FreedomPop lets these devices in as a way to get started with their service for almost nothing. They will do a great job making calls and sending texts, but heavy users may opt for snagging a bit more power in something like the Samsung Galaxy S4 for around $300 instead.
Of course, checking out FreedomPop online, you may find some less than flattering reviews about the coverage and quality of the network. You may also find that the devices get beat up in the reviews as well. Keep in mind that many of these reviews are written by people looking for their ‘Elanor’ as they would have said in Gone In 60 Seconds. yes, that magical unicorn that gives them perfect service everywhere, on a device that does everything, for absolutely nothing. No, the service isn’t perfect, but for zero out of pocket every month, it’s far from lackluster.
If you’ve been looking at your cellular bill each month and wondering to yourself why you continue to pay so much for something you use so little, visit FreedomPop and order up some freedom for yourself. With current device prices from $69.99, you have nothing to lose except that gigantic cell bill every month.
Link: FreedomPop
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