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Message started by Oldfeller on 01/23/16 at 01:20:45

Title: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/23/16 at 01:20:45

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Moto-E-2nd-Gen-LTE-FreedomPop-Certified-pre-owned-/291638983670?hash=item43e709bbf6:g:JnYAAOSwgjhWbyW5

http://g-public.s3.amazonaws.com/12142015141636.jpg

This is a current 4.3" screen Moto E (2nd gen). My wife loves a very small phone and she doesn't like 5" size phones, so for small phones this one seems good at $49 refurbed.

It is a FreedomPOP refurb that should actuate on their free network. It is the current phone version with the current 64 bit chipset and better graphics that came out just this year.

If you are CAREFUL when you do it, you can punch up a totally free monthly service supposedly.

This FreedomPop is Certified Pre-Owned:

FREE - 100% Free talk, text, and data: 500 texts, 200 voice minutes, and 500MB of data free every month for life

I, personally, could live with this phone and plan. I pay $125 a year for the plan I have now from Republic Wireless, so my payback for the phone purchase is only six months. We are used to slow Sprint 3-G service, so there will be no real change to user expectations going to FreedomPOP unless FP is a total screwup company.

Issue and risk is "Will the 100% free Freedom POP thing go on for at least six months or will it end shorter than that?"

Title: Re: Versy -- Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/23/16 at 02:04:50

And ...... here comes the rub.

:P

It is Sprint based, and Sprint cellular coverage sucks. And you are buying 3-G Sprint to boot and as Sprint rolls all their towers to 4-G your 3-G coverage will suck worse and worse, until FreedomPOP finally rolls over to 4-G Sprint across the board. The phones I am getting can do 4G-LTE so I am covered for upcoming future tower shifts.

Right now my local area Sprint towers are all 3-G so I am currently in line with this plan.

There is no customer service. Zero. You do it all on-line with FreedomPOP

USER BEWARE, about half the sign up items on the current sign up web pages only work about half way.

Every time you get a bill, you can expect to have exceeded some BS cap or service limit and your bill is a little more than expected. FreedomPOP has to break even on you, somehow.

However, it is STILL much less expensive that other services and if you stay on your home or work router all the time it is ...... free. Supposedly.

Title: Re: Versy -- Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/23/16 at 02:35:17

Example of a BS fee --- $0.99 monthly adder for "activation fee" which is charged if you do not use at least half of the 500mb of free data.

Sorta stupid sounding, huh? What they are really saying is that they are losing their asses on you and have to try to break even by creating a new fee every once and a while. This one is really saying "Since you don't even use half of the free 500mb of data, you are a very poor chance that we will ever get to charge you any accidental overage charges, so we'll collect a bogus fee to get up to "break even" instead."

Still, even with the current BS fees you still pay yourself back on the $49 phone purchase inside six months and once you get your stuff set up right you get FREE phone service from Sprint for less than $5 a month from then on out.

I have two FreedomPop $49 refurb phones on the way, as I can work a system with the best of them and if it stays workable for 6 months I got my payback in the bank.

FreedomPop and Republic Wireless, these are the current low cost leaders in cell phone service.

I have used Republic Wireless for a year now and I can vouch the $12.54 per line/phone is STABLE, real and actual. Service with Republic Wireless is fairly good and you can actually email or text the RW people and they will respond back, especially if you start out at the new customer "questions" screen with a statement like "Which one of your phones has XXX you name your problem XXX working 100% correctly right now? My wife is totally pissed because of XXX you name your problem XXX and wants her Galaxy S3 back from Verizon and I don't want to do that."

:D Tec Support comes on screen almost at once when Sales hits their go button.

So, what prompted me to try to use Freedom Pop? Why do it now?

https://forums.freedompop.com/discussion/13135/byod-free-unlimited-talk-text-1gb-data-plan-every-month-limited-time

http://https://15254b2dcaab7f5478ab-24461f391e20b7336331d5789078af53.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/freedompop.vanillaforums.com/editor/zz/4ulmcn833q7l.jpg

What's Included?

Free Unlimited Talk, Text, & 1GB Data Plan every month (reg. $19,99/month)

Plus, Free Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Activation (reg. $20)

Just a One-time top-up credit of $20 when signing up!

Now, ask me if I believe it?

;) Hell no, but I can see having a couple of FreedomPop in the stable that might make some sort of decent service off my local router, which is what I use all the time anyway. The $49 phones are a whole generation more modern that what I have now, with better wifi chips/antenna, etc.

BTW, this particular 1 gig of data con is leading you into signing up for a $20 a month data plan, which isn't what you really want to be doing.

So, I just paid $94 to get two of the refurbie Moto E gen 2 phones so I can try it out for real, kick its tires. See just how close to "free" I can really get some call from anywhere on wifi cell phone service.

(yep, every cheapskate has to have a hobby, right?)

Potential advantage to FreedomPOP is that they include DATA (500 meg per month) into the freebie service. 500meg of data on RW costs $5 a month.

Both charge taxes and fees, RW totals $2.25 a month per line and FreedomPOP is more than that (and seems to change/shift frequently also).

Current known monthly "equivalency" stack up of $$$$$

Republic Wireless FreedomPOP

Cost per line for basic service $10.00 $0
Required taxes $ 2.25 $ ??
Added on fees so far $ 0.00 $0.99
(likely more will show up)
Cost for 500meg of data $ 5.00 $0

Fixed one shot to buy low end phone $150.00 $49.00
(Ebay is used by both to sell their refurbs)

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/25/16 at 00:24:31

What is FreedomPOP doing well ?

You can bring ANY Sprint (or Sprint derived sub carrier) phone that the specs check out based on the MEID number on the "Check your BYOP" page. The phones that work are all relatively modern 4G-LTE phones, so your new phone is likely a feature upgrade to what you are using now.

You can come much closer to zero cost than with all the other carriers at this time. The phones you get from FreedomPOP are dirt cheap compared to the big carriers (no joke, they are all factory refurbished phones, not new phones -- sold for dirt cheap no less)

If you hit a Sprint 4-G tower area, and if you phone is good enough, you can actually get on 4-G LTE and run at those data speeds until your paltry 500 meg is all gone -- then you automatically pay for the next slug of data at a reasonable rate compared to what AT&T charges.

What is FreedomPOP doing that is not so well?

Their web sign up pages are constantly changing (constantly minorly out of date) and the web based everything isn't keeping up with the workload that the public is putting on it.

If you bill gets off for whatever reason, getting it fixed takes FOREVER according to the people complaining on the forums.

Customer service is "poor", in other words.

YOU have to remember to turn off your "data" except for when you choose to use it -- or else instead of using wifi you can suck down a huge chunk of cell data usage. You get the impression FreedomPOP really wants you to exceed some limits so they can make a little bit of money off of you.

ALL OF THE FREEDOMPOP PROVIDED REALLY CHEAP PHONES ARE FACTORY REFURBED ITEMS -- if you got a fetish for brand new you won't find that unless you BYOP.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by sjaskow - FSO on 01/25/16 at 09:40:06

I use a company called Consumer Cellular (it's marketed toward "older" people ;)) and they use AT&T's towers. They have a new Moto E for $80: https://www.consumercellular.com/cart/phones/options/1/637 and, while the plan won't be "free", you can get 250 minutes for $15 and 3000 texts and 500MB for $10 more. I have their $10 0 minute plan; minutes are $0.25; and 300 text/30MB which is $2.50 and my bill tends to be about $16 a month after taxes.

Also, don't forget than a brand-new unlocked Moto E is $119.99 direct from Motorola: http://www.motorola.com/us/smartphones/moto-e-2nd-gen/moto-e-2nd-gen.html. Get one of those and you can use anybody's SIMs.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/25/16 at 14:39:15

We are all with somebody right now and somebody is charging us too much money.

;)

When I went with Republic Wireless I cut my bill down by at least two thirds which was a lot of money.

Now I plan to cut my bill in half again and get 500 meg of data usage for free on top of that. And on top of that I'm going to get my phone for one third the cost of the previous phone.

What I don't understand is why some of you guys are still stuck with AT&T and Sprint and T-Mobile using the same old plan you used last year even though the guys have cut their new rates by a third.

The new mindset for mobile devices isn't you planning to be sticking around for 2 years to get a new phone.

The new mental picture is that you buy a cheap phone outright that does what you want it to do as cheaply as you can and you get the cheapest plan that you can. Then you consider the "payback" periods -- how long will it take for your new equipment and plan to pay you back for having gone to it.

Its funny, Republic Wireless paid me back in one year for the cost of buying into that system. That was $300 for two phones and $24.95 a month for two phone, no data. It was a no brainer on the payback, I used to pay 600 bucks a phone and $67 per line per month to have Verizon. And I was locked in for two years with Verizon.

This is where a lot of you guys still are -- why is that, why aren't you paying attention?

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by old_rider on 01/25/16 at 15:38:42

Consumer Cellular is big up in that area.

When I moved to Quincy Illinois from Florida (first time), I had T Mobile, and you could a signal in the center of town.
T Mobile was great in that they gave me the codes to unlock my phones (Razor's back then).
We went to Consumer Cellular and paid about $55 a month, it is a local area based company using the towers of its competitors, but lower signal rates. If you are not a big data users, it is the stuff to go with.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/25/16 at 15:49:08

Okay then, let's put a line in the sand. If you are paying more than $125 for your phone (outright purchase price) and/or if you're paying more than $12.50 per line per phone monthly charge, then you need to do something about that.

IF FreedomPOP is real, then you have someplace to go to do better than that.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Serowbot on 01/25/16 at 22:16:46

My CenturyLink internment expires in March...
Can I transfer my number?...

Talk to me like yer' training a monkey... a chicken....
I'm paying $65 a month for internet and phone...
I use the internet... the phone, well,... I'm not chatty...
I'd be happy to dump it... :-?

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/26/16 at 02:30:54

Yes, you can transfer your old number, it costs you $9.99 to do so. I would not do that until I had run the service for at least a month to see if I liked it.

I will post exactly how to sign up so you get as close to a free plan as possible.

Not having done it yet -- we don't know the final real cost or how well the service actually pans out to be. I am a firm believer in going and doing it and then saying what it really is.

BUT ..... if you feel like risking $49 to try it out with me ...... you start here. They still have over 10 available at the price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Moto-E-2nd-Gen-LTE-FreedomPop-Certified-pre-owned-/291638983670?hash=item43e709bbf6:g:JnYAAOSwgjhWbyW5

You get the phone by slow snail mail (2 weeks to arrive).

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/26/16 at 02:45:01

796F78657D68657E0A0 wrote:

Talk to me about $65 covering phone and internet. I take this to mean you have a phone plan that includes some data. You need to find out off of a bill or a statement (or off your phone itself) how much data you are actually using.

Whooooaaah Nelly !!!!!

Century Link ---- damm you are talking about a land line phone !!!!

You can't bust up that paring -- Century Link only sells internet if you take the phone service.

You are in the stone ages still --- and you have to get rid of your land line phone thinking all together. Nobody has land line phones any more ..... not even us old people.

Step 1 --- find out how you can get high speed internet service into your home where you live, without a "required" phone line getting slammed up your keister by the phone company.

Next, I can't imagine a more expensive internet service than Century Link ---- ouch !!!

:P

SEPARATE THE TWO ITEMS --- BUY THE CHEAPEST INTERNET SERVICE YOU CAN GET AND THEN GO BUY THE CHEAPEST CELL PHONE PLAN YOU CAN GET.

I pay $39 for decent internet service (my wife is addicted to streaming on Roku while she does stuff on an iPad and on her phone all at the same time while I am upstairs doing the same thing, so I need fairly decent internet service to the house).

Mine is Time Warner "Normal" speed, which is cheaper for basic internet than Century Link. You might be able to get away with "Basic" speed which is cheaper still at $19.99 on sign up special.

If you stream video while doing other things, get enough internet to do that.

HOWEVER, a basic service plan at $19.99 is in use at my mother-in-laws house and the only time she "slows down" is at Thanksgiving and Christmas when every one of the 8 grandkids has his phone out and all the women are banging on their iPads playing a game together while the TV is constantly streaming Downton Abby.

You might swing cheap at sign up, as they will always let you upgrade.
You might be able to run a $19.99 Time Warner plan with no sweat.

You won't know unless you try.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Art Webb on 01/27/16 at 08:33:17

I had Time Warner high speed (roadrunner) at $30 a month
when I mover to Garwood?
Not Available
I've yet to find high speed here at a reasonable price, and since my ATT phone gives me unlimited Internet (4 GIGs 4GGLTE )
I think it's a bit pricey at $60 / month, but really don't have many options
Republic, fredom pop, I dunno whose towers they use, but unless it's ATTs towers, they will not work well here
I mean, my Straight talk was verizon towers, and it sucked in Garwood
Here it's ATT or (according to one source) Cricket, whach my source says uses ATT towers
IIRC republic only works Via WIFI
what if I break down in BFE ay o dark thirty? am I gonna call a tow truck (or a friend) by standing next to the road and yelling?
my stuff has to work, or it's worth what you pay for freedom pop...nothing

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/27/16 at 15:18:56

This is all true, and you get a read for your local coverage by asking for a Sprint coverage map for your state.

You also check for coverage as part of step #1 in signing up for FreedomPOP.

You need also to do a speed test of your connection off your new device while it is still a sub-month old puppy so you can return it if it just plain SUCKS speed-wise.

Be warned, FreedomPOP is a 3-G system so it CAN run on 4G-LTE if that is all that is out there where you are, but it will default to 3-G if that is there too. Also be aware that the totally free stuff is WiMax based, which is a 4-G legacy system that is phasing out all over the USA right now. Your fall back for WiMax is 2-G which is very very poor.

FreedomPOP is re-pricing their plans to base off of 4-G LTE which is why some of the plan pricing has jumped up recently.

=========================================

Unlocking the Wifi Magic of these new low end plans -- it means when you stop for a piss you can get a Wifi signal at just about any burger joint now-a-days and that unlocks your phone for endless use even if there isn't a Sprint tower around anywhere.

Supposedly you can put an app, a FreedomPOP app from the Playstore,
on ANY Android phone and do this neat little trick ???? :o

Ditto for travel into foreign nations -- the cheapie Wifi phones will work on anybody's Wifi at no additional cost in any country, where as your big boys like AT&T lite you up BAD for international roaming charges from the very get go and their stuff doesn't always work with the local carriers.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/27/16 at 17:31:12

FreedomPOP has just "evolved" their plans based on Sprint's having completed their killing off WiMax, their old proprietary 4-G standard, having evolved their FreedomPOP service into "Something Else" that is totally 3-G and 4-G LTE based.

Things either just got simpler and better, or then again perhaps not. :P

Feedback is that the brand new folks that are trying to sign up are seeing brand new web sign up pages that don't tell them if what they are asking about as a BYOP qualifies for the new standards or not. They can fumble through and complete the sign up and find at their first billing period that they had actually signed up for a $19.99 per month all of everything plan.

The old free plan pages are totally web dead now and they route you to the new, totally completely confusing sign up pages.

Cries of newbie outrage are splitting the eithernet at the moment, plus my phones are still stuck in snail-mail-land and haven't been delivered yet, so I too am stuck in a changeover period.

:-/

Newbie Beware !!!!

Freedom Pop Service Plans

Freedom Pop offers a number of different plans that you will want to know about so you can choose the one that will meet all of your specific needs.

FREE Talk, Text & LTE Data for a Year

With this plan you will get a total of 200 talk minutes, unlimited text, and 500 MB of data for FREE for a full year. This is a monthly plan, which means that you can cancel anytime you want. This plan runs through the Sprint network and is typically $10.99 after the first year. This is the world’s only 100% free mobile phone plan. This is a 1 year introduction plan in other words. It is "Wifi only" based, with 200 Sprint WiMax based talk minutes with WiMax going out of service now. Cell tower data speed is SLOW, but is no longer clearly stated anywhere. Strange fees get charged if you don't use over half your data, etc. etc. etc. This is the plan that most folks complain voraciously about all the time.

Unlimited Talk and Text Monthly with 500 MB of Data

The second plan that you will have to choose from with Freedom Pop includes unlimited talk and text and 500 MB of data for just $10.99 per month. You can choose to talk and text over Wi-Fi or using the cellular network. You will get the first month free and there are absolutely no credit checks or cancellation fees. This is closely equivalent to Republic Wireless's current plan, with you getting 500 meg of data provided for free, something that costs $5.00 extra a month at Republic Wireless.

Unlimited Talk & Text with 1GB of Data

The last plan that Freedom Pop offers includes unlimited talk and text with 1GB of data for the low monthly rate of $19.99. With this plan the first month is free and no credit check is required. This plan, like all of Freedom Pop’s other plans, is month-to-month, so you can cancel at anytime time without incurring any fees whatsoever. The 1GB of full speed data will allow you to browse the web on your mobile device faster than ever before. This is identical to the Republic Wireless step up plan.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/27/16 at 18:57:29

This is not me -- it is a EDITED posted walkthrough of how to do it off the internet. Screens have changed and the plans have changed, but the advice is sound -- the on line screens are a problem so do it verbally with customer service over the phone and KEEP ASKING FOR THAT MONTHLY TOTAL UNTIL IT COMES OUT TO ZERO.

HOW TO GET IT SET TO $0 A MONTH (FREE):

I ordered this FreedomPOP from Amazon or Ebay. When it's delivered, you get a Quick Start Guide. In the light blue bubble on the paper, it says that if you didn't get it directly from FreedomPop, like me, you get 2 options:

1. Activate your device online
2. Activate your device by calling

Do NOT activate it online. Activate by calling.

If you're interested to know why, read on. If not, skip to the next paragraph. By default, the free trial is picked in bright green. You can get over this by clicking the shaded out 500 mb plan all the way to the right, which is the truly free one. HOWEVER, when you get to checkout, you notice it has forced you into what's called "FreedomPop Premier." You cannot remove it from your shopping cart. It's free for 30 days, but then you pay $25 in advance every 3 months (at about $8 per month). Avoid the headaches of trying to cancel and trying to get your money back by not getting FreedomPop Premier in the first place.

Call 888-701-1353, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. If you can help it, do not call during lunch hour. EVERYONE calls during lunch hour, so you have to wait hours! I called at 9am and only waited 2 minutes.

Tell whoever picks up that you want to activate your device. They'll transfer you to a sales rep. What you have to do is CAREFULLY REFUSE all the adder items and REFUSE all the "free for the first month" stuff and KEEP asking what the monthly total is and insist that it should be ZERO. Expect the customer service person to have problems with their computer screen, as their system automatically adds stuff back in and ASK THEM REPEATEDLY TO CANCEL EACH ADDITIONAL ITEM as soon as they recognize it. Record who your customer service rep is -- you may need this information later on.

NOTE:

You'll be charged 1$ on your credit card after this call. I called back and asked why, and was told it's to check to see if the card works. He said I would get refunded. I'll continue to keep tabs on my credit card, as should you. By the way, I recorded all my calls --- I did this because I read a review of someone being charged for a feature that they had already disabled. According to him, when he called, the customer service person basically just called him a liar. He could not prove otherwise without his recordings.

>:( :-? :P :-[ :-/ >:( :-? :P :-[ :-/ >:( :-? :P :-[ :-/ >:( :-? :P :-[ >:( :-? :P

PEW !!!
I posted this yesterday and then I slept on it -- had me a "scraping the floor clean up the junk" dream from 15 years ago. These are Kaizen clean up dreams from us in plant management having to clean up an UGLY area in the plant (put on your grubbies for a week and scrape and clean and toss away generations of junk and old parts saved by now retired maintenance people "just in case"). Yep, in some cases before you could paint the floor you had to SCRAPE the layered crap up and then steam blast it followed by walnut media blasting just to get it down to bare concrete so the paint would stick.

Woke up feeling like FreedomPOP was the oily floor scrapings from a Kaizen event. Go through all the BS and in the end you wind up getting some minor amounts of free data over what the Republic Wireless competition offers.

Their competition is Republic Wireless, a Google offshoot that has a clear reputation of customer service and excellence as opposed to shysterism.

Republic Wireless deals with Sprint as an NVO reseller with Sprint as their tower supplier. RW has just upped their basic plan costs and features just a wee bit due to Sprint closing out their 2-G and WiMax as service offerings. Republic Wireless is still 3-G based, but Sprint is going to close out 3-G in the not too distant future when it too goes over the technology dam.

FreedomPOP has just lost their little niche using the antique Sprint WiMax "4-G" as the basis of their "free 4-G offering" and is having to roll up in features -- cost is rolling up also at the same time.

If my phones have not shipped, I will cancel the order. If they have shipped, I will cancel anyway because the free plans touted in the Ebay posting no longer exist.

FreedomPOP is really just the oily floor scrapings from previous waves of tower technology .....

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/28/16 at 05:13:34

I attempted to contact my Ebay seller to cancel my phones -- he isn't able to cancel because they are "in shipment". He does offer 30 day "no questions asked returns" though and suggests I activate and see if FreedomPOP has cleaned up their act lately about their sign up process and their plans.

(Who does he think he is kidding ??? He IS FreedomPOP .....)

Next, he has edited his Ebay offering to get in line with what FreedomPOP is currently offering for plans.

This FreedomPop is Certified Pre-Owned:

FREE - 100% Free talk, text, and data: 500 texts, 200 voice minutes, and 500MB of data free every month for life
(this is a limited time Wifi only intro offer, good for a year or less) There is no real plan to back this up, this is your pure advertising come-on thing

.99 - Unlimited Talk, Text, and 500MB of data (this is a limited time intro offer, good for a year or less) Real plan is $10.99

.99 - Unlimited Talk, Text, and 1GB of data (this is a limited time intro offer, good for a year or less) Real plan is $19.99

100% Free WiFi Calling and Texting (this is using the FreedomPOP Android App)

Free International calling - Get 100% Free Calls and Texts over WiFi to over 50 countries and discounted rates for country specific plans (this is using the FreedomPOP Android App)

FreedomPop Certified Pre-owned: Through extensive physical damage and functionality checks, thorough data wipes, factory resets, and advanced frequency tests

30-day money back guarantee - No questions asked

No Contracts – Cancel anytime without fees or commitments

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/28/16 at 05:36:08

OK, let's check out the FreedomPOP Android App since that is the basis for all the current advertised truly 'free' offerings.

http://www.androidcentral.com/freedompop-offers-unlimited-access-its-wifi-network-5-month

FreedomPop offers unlimited access to its Wi-Fi network for $5 a month

So, $5 after the intro period instead of really 'free". This is exactly what Republic Wireless offers as their lowest cost Wifi ONLY access plan.

The only remaining price difference between FreedomPOP and Republic Wireless is the 500 meg of data which is worth ~$5.00 a month.

There is supposedly a speed difference, 3-G vs 4-G, advantage to FreedomPOP.

There is a phone cost difference, with a current generation refurbed FreedomPOP costing less than half what a used Ebay Republic Wireless phone costs. But this comes across as a special short term deal, since dropped -- but apparently cheap phone offers do come up occasionally whenever they get too many phones in stock.

BEWARE: FreedomPOP loves them little unannounced adder fees, like the .99 access fee which is now an acknowledged formal fee. So your $5 just went down to $4 a month.

================================================

Both Republic Wireless (the good guys) and FreedomPOP (the BS guys) will save you a killing TON of money compared to AT&T, Verizon. They will cut a Sprint or T-Mobile bill down by a third.

The difference between the two is your peace of mind and about $4-5 in raw cost at any given level of service.

FreedomPOP is more desperate and is trying much much harder than Republic Wireless at this point in time. Republic Wireless is now acting more and more like Google Fi lite, which defines their offerings and their general pricing now.

As FreedomPOP struggles and flails around, they will occasionally drop a good price on stuff that lasts about a year. They are erratic in their billing practices, and require you to call in to protest any weird charges that you see showing up in your monthly bill.

Republic Wireless will act like a solid Google derived company, update your phone to the next Android version, etc. etc. Your monthly bill is what you agreed to, no monthly upsets when you see it.

=========================================

PAYBACK PERIOD, with me knowing more about it ......

Better phone, 500 meg of data, faster data speed --- cost savings per month $4.00 going to FreedomPOP

Phone cost is $49.99 each

$49.99 / $4 = Payback period is 13 months based on what we know now.

I think I will try it out -- there is no substitute for ACTUALLY DOING IT.

I still like the free 500 meg of data and the better data speed, but I do realize this is a marginal cost improvement while still having to deal ongoing with a BS loving company.

RISK LEVEL ..... is that FreedomPOP will fold up or totally change their plans inside 13 months.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by badwolf on 01/28/16 at 06:43:15

Your wifi app sounds like what I get with my MagicJack app, free calling on wifi anywhere I am with my android phone ($10 from trackfone, never activated with them) I also have a gps speedo app on it I use on my S40. I have broadband at home & just renewed my MagicJack for $99 for 5 years. For a true cell phone I have tmobile prepaid plan, $100 to start and be a gold customer and your minutes are good for a year. I very seldom use it, and $20 a year for more minutes keeps my balance active for another year.
If you are trying to find unlimited everything for free, you will have to park by the library and mooch off their free wifi.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/28/16 at 07:07:45

I would say what I am investigating is the current state of low cost and "free" as currently expressed by somewhat real providers.

I did this a year ago and I hit gold with Republic Wireless. Very gold. Very real.

I'm doing it again this year and looks like I am hitting brass with FreedomPOP instead of gold or silver.

Point is, unless you try about once a year .... you get bupkiss for anything new or better. Jest stuck forever on the same old stuff.

;) ..... even brass is better than bupkiss.

Badwolf has a new freebie candidate as an Android App from Magic Jack.

I just charged up my old Galaxy S3 so I can see if I can get me some free Android action from FreedomPOP or from Magic Jack on a dead, no service cell phone.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Art Webb on 01/28/16 at 07:53:33

My Straight Talk phone was 3G, my ATT phone is 4G LTE, i see no difference in speed
I have passed my 4G limit this month (too much YouTube) and am now on 2G
2G is like Dial up was BITD, minus getting kicked off the web
In other words, "click on desired website, go make a sandwich"
Still runs my PC through tether, which surprised me

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Serowbot on 01/28/16 at 09:42:02

Cr@p!... Maybe I'll just make do with stupidphone from Tracphone...
I now have 3,000 minutes backed up on it...

I don't understand any of this stuff...
Just can't get into phones and apps and texting over wi-fi...

I thought MagicJack was for using a regular home phone on internet?...
It uses cell phones?....
Does it work?... :-?

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by old_rider on 01/28/16 at 11:07:52

07242C2E2D24242D3A480 wrote:

Why not just download a free VOIP app onto that phone and use it when near a free wi-fi?
There are free wi-fi spots everywhere now days....
And free Voice Over Internet Protocall software programs out the ying/yang.
I mean, you are already carrying around a couple of phones on you.... why not buy two cheap ones and give the wifey one to use at work wi-fi and you have one at home wi-fi?
Use the "charge" phones less.... save money? no?

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by badwolf on 01/28/16 at 15:32:30

MagicJack is for a home phone over your internet. You must have broadband from somewhere. The app for your android phone allows you to make calls over any wifi like you were on your home phone. It cost about $60 for me to buy the unit, transfer my home number, and the first year of service. I just renewed for 5 years for $99. Was paying $36 a month for basic home phone from ATT. Had to have it to get dsl. When I went to cable internet for $34.99 a month (same as I was paying for dsl) and MagicJack my total bill went wayyyy down. I have the tmobile prepay cell phone if I REALLY need it. Keep in mind, I only use a phone as a PHONE, not to surf, text, or play games. If you are using your phone for everything, and are on it whenever you are breathing (like most teenagers). You are gonna have to pay SOMETHING! Well maybe you could get a ''Obama phone'' if you qualify, but if you have saved any of your money instead of spending it on drugs, you won't qualify. Or free housing or food stamps. But I digress.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Art Webb on 01/28/16 at 15:46:08

starting next pay cycle ATT will increase from 4 to 5 gigs 4G
still costs a lot compared to regular cell / internet, but all i got right now
as far as actually using my cell as a cell, I could probably do just fine with a $10 dumb phone ;D

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/28/16 at 20:24:37

Yep, I did the Viber thing on this same out of service phone and it worked great for outgoing calls when you know you at a spot with good wifi available.

Folks trying to call you, not so hot as you are out and about a lot (no stable wifi to carry the call).

The kids all text each other now instead of calling, as text gets picked up by the next wifi zone you go through and reads through and is stored on your device.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/29/16 at 09:13:41

OK, my phones came in. I took the first one and activated it over the phone as per these instructions .....

HOW TO GET IT SET TO $0 A MONTH (FREE):

I ordered this FreedomPOP from Amazon or Ebay. When it's delivered, you get a Quick Start Guide pamphlet. In the light blue bubble on the paper (or in the text on page #6, it varies) it says that if you didn't get it directly from FreedomPop, like me, you get 2 options:

~~1. Activate your device online~~
2. Activate your device by calling My booklet said call 1-888-743-8107 so I used that toll free number.

Do NOT activate it online. Activate by calling the 1-888-743-8107 toll free number.

If you're interested to know why, read on. If not, skip to the next paragraph. By default, the free trial is picked in bright green. You can get over this by clicking the shaded out 500 mb plan all the way to the right, which is the truly free one. HOWEVER, when you get to checkout, you notice it has forced you into what's called "FreedomPop Premier." You cannot remove it from your shopping cart. It's free for 30 days, but then you pay $25 in advance every 3 months (at about $8 per month). Avoid the headaches of trying to cancel and trying to get your money back by not getting FreedomPop Premier in the first place.

Call 888-701-1353, Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm. If you can help it, do not call during lunch hour. EVERYONE calls during lunch hour, so you have to wait hours! I called at 9am and only waited 2 minutes.

Tell whoever picks up that you want to activate your device. They'll transfer you to a sales rep. What you have to do is CAREFULLY REFUSE all the adder items and REFUSE all the "free for the first month" stuff and KEEP asking what the monthly total is and insist that it should be ZERO. Expect the customer service person to have problems with their computer screen, as their system automatically adds stuff back in and ASK THEM REPEATEDLY TO CANCEL EACH ADDITIONAL ITEM as soon as they recognize it. Record who your customer service rep is -- you may need this information later on.

NOTE:

You'll be charged 0.01$ (one cent) on your credit card after this call. I called back and asked why, and was told it's to check to see if the card works. He said I would get refunded. I'll continue to keep tabs on my credit card, as should you. By the way, I recorded all my calls --- I did this because I read a review of someone being charged for a feature that they had already disabled. According to him, when he called, the customer service person basically just called him a liar. He could not prove otherwise without his recordings.

It took 29 minutes on the phone to do the job. You need to have your charge card standing by as they are going to push a 1 cent charge through right then to make sure your card is real and is working right.

I recorded the phone call and it was "convoluted" as I kept saying "NO, I just want the free service" to all the multiple offers of this and that.

There was one item that stuck in the system anyway and that was $3.00 for premium voice and I was immediately transferred over to Customer Service to have that yanked.

I spoke with two Mexican based English speakers, so this phone stuff is all exported to 3rd world call centers, but they spoke well enough and I was insistent that they speak clearly and loudly whenever they were trying to sell me an additional service and I was denying it. I got a good recording of it anyway.

I have the basic 100% FREE service, and now am going to find out all the warts and uglies that such contains. I suspect that voice quality on calls SUCKS unless you are on Wifi and I think this is admitted to by the fact they want to GIVE you "premium voice" for the first 90 days (which is also the money back guarantee period, btw).

But, this is an experiment in FREE, so we take the free, warts and all.

:)

This Moto E cell phone and FreedomPOP "Free Basic" plan cost me $49.99 and my payback period for the entire package the way it is right now is 4.2 months.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/29/16 at 09:48:28

I gave the FreedomPOP people the 1/2 hour they said they needed to get me all organized in their system and then I turned the phone on for the very first time.

I was asked to choose my wifi from a listing of area wifi that could be seen, and I selected my own and gave it the password.

I was prompted to put in my Android gmail address (you got one if you have an Android device) and immediately Google proved how great it was by offering to restore all my stuff automatically from my Google Drive backup. I said YES, and Google mirrored my existing Republic Wireless Moto G on to the FreedomPOP Moto E. All of it, every setting, app, every feature, picture, you name it, all of it set up and working the way it does now.

Several of the items needed updating as the original version was screwy on the new phone (old phone was 32 bit, new phone is 64 bit) but that shook itself out fairly easily and I was prompted for the new 64 bit version of the apps in question.

Since it is my old phone in essence, the learning curve is small.

Thank you Google -- it took you 20 minutes of downloading but it would have taken me a week to manually put all my various toys back into commission.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/29/16 at 10:05:36

Something you have to deal with on your phone itself is Automatic Top-up

This needs to be killed on an intentionally totally free system as it will automatically reach out to your charge card to get more money as soon as you get into the last 200 megabytes of your free data.

Yeah, I know, kinda dumb -- as soon as you get into the last half of your free data they go pick your charge cards pocket to trick you into spending data past your free limit :P and remember this top-up stuff is hidden from you because the goal post was moved automatically.

I want the system to DIE TOTALLY when I hit the end of the free data, so I went into the Billings Settings menu on the FreedomPOP lockscreen and turned Automatic Top-up "off". I think you get some warnings about data running out then before you die, but we shall see won't we. I went into systems settings for cell data and put in a phone based 450 meg warning and a 495 meg cut off.

=======================================

Messaging blue and white bubble icon

Something that isn't obvious is that the FreedomPOP blue and white message bubble (message icon) is your actual one touch gateway into your FreedomPOP settings and administration system on your phone.

It also gives you your running totals on data use, phone minutes and text counts.

I put mine next to the phone call symbol as it is also used to manually initiate a text message and you can even start a call with it if you choose.

You can still use your contact list to do the same sorts of things, of course.

========================================

(PS ...... I used up a whopping 18 meg of data in setting up and upgrading my new phone --- weeee !!!!)

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/29/16 at 13:54:13

FreedomPOP requires an extra cost adder for voice messaging. Oh well, I didn't need that anyway -- just shoot me a text instead.

So far I can turn off cell data and run the whole phone just fine off of wifi and only when I need data do I turn it back on.

The main trick is -- just turn my cell data on only as needed.

500 meg will last me a month, easily, apart from some stupid accident leaving cell on and hitting web sites or doing a little YouTube streaming that is part of a web site that is being visited.

Phone calls on wifi are fine, calls on "natural" unaugmented Sprint voice service (2G ????) are kinda scratchy with some background noise & trash --- but it works OK so far.

If I had known all this, I wouldn't have burned that initial 18 meg of data setting the phone up, as it was all Playstore update minutes as the apps all had to be downloaded and updated --- and because cell data was "on" Playstore used that instead of wifi (which was also on but didn't get used by Playstore as Playstore uses cell data by default).

::)

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/29/16 at 20:10:10

Now for some good news about the Motorola Moto E second generation phone itself.

The wifi system in this phone is three times better than any phone, tablet or laptop I have ever owned. It pulls in three to four bars at distances that are amazing.

Because the Wi-Fi is so good I don't have to use nearly as much cellular data.

And the talk to text function works much better as well.

The processor speed and screen response time are cooperating together to make the phone move incredibly fast. I think part of this trick is while the screen is scrolling it does not display high resolution (low res - kind of fuzzy) but when it stops scrolling it then pops into an extremely fine resolution image.

The net effect is some fantastic scrolling speed .....

;)

Proof of the pudding is this ..... I am streaming a movie using no cellular data in a place where I never could do that before.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/30/16 at 10:31:00

I have had this phone functioning for a full 24 hours and have gone through one full battery cycle.

Battery life is a full-on active day of full-on use, but you will still have to charge the phone once a night.

This is a carry and use all day, charge at night sort of phone.

Battery life is slightly better than the Moto G, which is understandable as the Moto E is starting up with a fresher, slightly larger more modern battery. Should have better use life as the Moto E battery is slightly bigger, but so far nothing earth shaking shows up in these early results -- just a good full day of use will run you down to about 25% left on the battery.

Moto G would have gotten lower sooner and you would have had to use the charger that you carry with you whenever you got a battery alert. The Moto E never dipped down that far. So, you may get to stop carrying a charger with you all the time ......

I had auto-installed a Flashlight app from my Google Drive Moto G backup. Before un-installing it I gave it a click "on" just to see what happened. There is no flash on the Moto E (Moto E camera can work without it, Moto E has a more modern camera sensor and better light enhancing camera software). I expected a fail to take place on this impromptu app trial. Not so, the app put the entire front face of the 4.5" display on "full strength glow light mode" and that makes the flashlight app worth keeping as that "large glow light" is perfectly OK for fumbling with keys, etc.

Kudos to the Moto E for being a 2 year more improved more modern product than the Moto G it size replaces. Triple kudos for FreedomPOP for selling this good of a phone for only $49.

People who are used to and like larger phones will of course buy a similar sized product, and their math will be affected by the higher cost they pay, but anyone not on one of the low cost leaders (Republic Wireless and FreedomPOP) should consider moving at least one (1) phone over to check it out.

Be aware that you are getting a full set of basic services from Republic Wireless, but RW is all done respectably, cleanly, honestly and relatively well. Folks generally like RW as a company. (duh, it is a Google offshoot with Google core values, what did you expect?)

In contrast FreedomPOP is much more of a raw, bare bones thing -- you have to like it for what it is cost-wise as their software and their customer service IS GOING TO IRRITATE YOU.

Most of what has been outstanding about FreedomPOP has been the Moto E phone (and face it, most phones do shine compared against their two generations back great great grandparents).

So far the worst things about FreedomPOP "free phone" are the 2G Sprint cell voice support and the unfinished, slightly raw nature of the FreedomPOP voice over IP software and all the BS misleading FreedomPOP web pages trying to upsell you all the time.

EXAMPLE: $3 a month buys FreedomPOP Premium Voice, an item that FP owners can't agree even works at all and those that say it does work say it isn't ready for prime time yet. This supposedly plugs in normal Sprint voice calls over modern Sprint towers .... kinda, partially. Results seem to vary strongly by phone and by local tower type.

The stock FREE voice over wifi certainly isn't the best, it always sounds rain-barrel and has scratchy static background noises. Voice calls are the worst feature of the phone right now.

Next, between spotty 2G Sprint tower placements and lack of wifi away from town, you aren't always in a place to make or take a voice call with this free phone. It greatly resembles an old Sprint 2G phone in this aspect -- so you will have to train your contact folks to text you for a call back. Or have an ongoing text to text conversation like all the modern kids do all the time.

Would I put my wife on this phone? No, not right now.

She talks a lot, carries on long conversations while moving down the road in her car and does lots of other mostly verbal/email related items. She likes her Republic Wireless phone just fine ..... and face it $12.24 isn't a big monthly price to pay to keep her life smooth and her feeling happy.

::) ...... if Momma ain't happy, ain't NOBODY happy ......

I think early on Republic Wireless very wisely limited their efforts to the Motorola line of phone products intentionally just to get a consistent phone feature set to program against and to get a GOOD well accepted phone at a low price point.

This was a natural to them as Google owned Motorola back then and these Republic Wireless people all started out working at Google working full time on these very ideas before taking the low end phone ideas out into the real world as an offshoot company.

Quite differently, FreedomPOP came from the low end router ISP side of things and is a quite old company, actually. Their first product was a free dial-up ISP and that led them over the years into making a free cellular router based hot spot (and they still sell that one today as a part of their business).

Phones are a brand new thing to FreedomPOP, but it looks to be becoming quite a large thing for the folks over at FreedomPOP. Got tons of last year's phones to dump off for cheap, including a large batch of Windows phones from what I read last night. MS needs that really big FP sell-off / dump off sales figure for their next quarter's Wall Street Required "uptick", so a very large MS "investment" came FreedomPOPs way to make sure the programming happens very very quickly, too.

Sorta desperate, huh?

FreedomPOP does like to jump around all over the place all the time and it now tries to get funding directly from the big phone makers to include their "slightly out of date" dump off phones as the FreedomPOP's phone of the week. The result of this "endless fire sale" mentality is that the FP implementation of features feels like a patchwork of stuff that was written to hit different vendors at different points of time.

FreedomPOP is growing rapidly right now, outstrippping its infastructure and churning its customer base just about every year or so -- but it is making low end low cost progress much quicker than the others.

Google wants FreedomPOP out there disrupting and moving and shaking. Google's Fi program is intended to create a whole sea of FreedomPOPs, so they can disrupt the cell phone industry and quintuple the number of Android phones and people their ads can reach.

FreedomPOP seems to want to stay at the very bottom level of phone services and attempts seriously to be the "totally free" FreedomPOP mentality we all remember from their free router dial-up roots.

They are Google's perfect mover and shaker, to agitate the monolithic cell phone industry and get some motion up out of that settled mud down on the bottom ..... FreedomPOP on the very bottom, Republic Wireless in the layer above that and Google Fi up on top acting as a Switzerland type hands off voice over Wifi technical 'supporter'.

SO .... FreedomPOP is staying afloat while putting out a totally free service ..... so they have to make their money on the front end from Sprint and the phone makers somehow. Arranging to buy and move the builders dead phones is what they are doing right now.

How long this will last? Who knows?

;)

At least four - five months or until the MS money runs out, I hope.

::) I gots me a payback period to make you know ......

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/30/16 at 16:45:48

Opinions from my family members runs pretty consistently -- "Daddy, stay with your old phone".

"That rain barrel thing while you are talking hurts my head to listen to it" sez my daughter.

Wife has also Spoken, no FreedomPOP for her -- ever.

Ever isn't really forever, as software changes and fixes come along monthly at FreedomPOP. When Google/Sprint cook up something to fix these "towerless" voice over wifi issues the solutions will show up everywhere, even on FreedomPOP.

Or Sprint may come up with a decent nearly free tower voice service that can be plugged into FreedomPOP instead of the not quite working Premium Voice that FreedomPOP is pushing now.

I will still run the phone through a complete billing cycle or two and investigate what fixes FreedomPOP comes up within the next upcoming months. Phones are still a puppy at FreedomPOP, they have only been in phones for less than a year now.

BTW, officially phones at FreedomPOP are still BETA quality testing and first generation BETA testing at that.

=======================================

VOIP Cell phones and VOIP cell phone dialer systems sometimes don't work right when calling and responding to automated response systems at charge card companies or at hospitals. Some of these were built to use land line phones and down't work well with wireless at all. To get past this issue, crank up the blue and white FreedomPOP bubble and use the dialer at the top right corner of the page -- it is the FreedomPOP internal dialer, not an Android dialer at all. It is kinda old fashioned and may work for you when an Android dialer does not.

Sometimes even that just doesn't work -- then you wait for a person to come on line to talk to you (they do eventually, you know).

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/31/16 at 16:11:40

I spent some time today working on the "echo issue." Moto E has a known "echo issue" that is based upon the phone's dual microphone noise cancellation system and, ironically, the use of the current crop of protective cases with tiny tiny mic openings.

The most popular fix is to open up the bottom side "mouth" microphone opening in the actual Moto E rim to main chassis area and matching it completely to an enlarged case opening (careful cutting & scraping with an X-acto Knife) and then putting a single layer of scotch tape over the up top camera/speaker area noise cancellation microphone.

These steps improved the quality of my voice as received by the other caller. It greatly reduced them hearing their own voice back as a low level feedback effect. The camera/speaker area noise cancelling microphone pickup is now covered with thin scotch tape which mutes it and reduces the "wind noise" and "echo feedback" effects.

It did not totally fix the whole issue, but gets it down into the realm of being able to go ahead and use the totally free FreedomPOP service while still waiting for a better fix to be invented.

Part of the problem is me, my hearing is so shot that I run the volume way up and put the phone in speaker mode, then I use it like a normal phone just so I can hear clearly. I was able to cut the volume down to 3/4 after opening up the mouth mic hole in both the case and the phone body, but I really still need to use the speakerphone to get enough sound for me to hear it clearly.

:P

Do stuff like that on a modern noise cancelling phone and I guess you can expect some echo issues to come from it.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/31/16 at 18:33:56

OK, I have been unusually busy on the new phone, calling people, texting people, explaining what I am trying to do while troubleshooting the Moto E rain barrel effect and the echo effects, etc.

I have also been streaming movies and exploring the distance limits of the wifi system trying to get a feel for the new limits of it.

So, what sort of severe damage did I do to my very low constrained limits on the Basic free plan during this "set-up weekend?" I mean, I was very active, fiddling around constantly.

..... in three days of use, I have used :

16 talk minutes, or 3 days worth of my total minutes (6.6 minutes per day is my raw 200min / 30days allocation)

20 texts, or a day and a bit worth of texts at 500 texts /30 days = 16 texts a day allocated out over the 30 days. This means I only used a day's worth and a bit over 3 very active days.

19 meg of data consumed, with my daily allocation of data equalling 16 megs a day (see item above for the math). This means I only used a day's worth and a bit of data. Part of this is the VERY good wifi range this phone has, unexpectedly good range and very advantageous to the freebie plan user.

Uh, I'm not really putting a very big nick in the free plan so far. I'd have to do some really stupid things to blow the Basic plan up, like start streaming a YouTube or a movie on cell data instead of wifi ......

:D Hey, I think I can make this free phone stuff work out, I really do.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 01/31/16 at 23:31:13

http://www.angrybureaucrat.com/2015/04/the-absolute-cheapest-even-free-cell.html

The Absolute Cheapest (Even Free!) Cell Phone Plans, 2015 Edition

http://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PxRSby5Sdfo/Uy8sFXrBHqI/AAAAAAAAAkU/-NzA0LaX5mM/s1600/minimum_cell_phone_cost.jpg&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image/

This provides a back check on my opinions and situational analysis --- before you spend money and change systems getting a second opinion is a good thing.

I agree that FreedomPOP is the cheapest way currently out there -- if you are willing to fight them a bit over the bills they send you and spend the time to get your actual program set up the way you really want it.

I further agree that Republic Wireless is the VERY BEST QUALITY cheapest way to get trouble free no hassels known good service for the least amount of money.

He has some other low cost options that I have never used and he does provide some charts and other tools that are sorta interesting and useful.

He does identify the lowest cost options if you are not in a Sprint area -- Verizon and T-Mobile NVOs are identified as best choices if you are locked into those areas.

BE AWARE his entire article assumes you have high speed internet in your home already.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Serowbot on 02/01/16 at 10:01:10

OF,.. with Republic's $10 talk and text plan,... do I still get unlimited data over wireless?...

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/01/16 at 10:38:41

Republic Wireless gives you a gigabyte of cellular data for $20, then refunds what you don't use at the end of the month. Not a roll over data amount that you would never get around to using, but a $$$ credit on your account.

There is no free cellular data with RW. The 500 meg of free cell data was the big incentive to get me to try FreedomPOP.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Serowbot on 02/01/16 at 14:14:18

... but, their Smartypantsphones (Moto G) can connect to wifi just like a tablet or laptop, right?...
So, that would be free data?... or does Republic software block that?...

Remember,.. I don't know nothin' when it comes to phones... :-/

Is Republic what I should get?...

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/01/16 at 14:27:58

Republic Wireless mostly uses voice over Wi-Fi technology (voice over internet). You will be using the Wi-Fi capabilities of the Moto G phone to make it all work at your home or around your work (if your work has wifi, and most places do).

However Republic wisely recognizes that people get away from Wi-Fi signals whenever they're in their cars rolling on down the road. To cover that they seamlessly hand off your current activity to Sprint 3G and 4G cellular tower service.

Republic Wireless can do your voice either way Wi-Fi and or Sprint cellular. If you have a data plan they can handle your data either way. If you go out of a Sprint area completely they can roam you over to Verizon because they know Sprint towers are spotty and Verizon is everywhere.

Yes, they charge a little more, but it is for a polished and refined and HONEST low end product that is still 2/3 cheaper than AT&T.

I paid $12.25 per line for Republic Wireless Basic and I was completely happy ..... until somebody waved 100% free AND 50 meg of free data in front of my nose ---- HOWEVER remember FreedomPOP is NOT polished and it is NOT refined and it is a constant BS snarky upsell if you ain't paying attention to your bill each month.

And FreedomPOP doesn't work right, not 100% not right now. My new Moto E phone on FP echos like a silly echo chamber most times, partially because I use it on speaker all the time to get more volume for my bad hearing.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/01/16 at 23:35:46

Should you get Republic Wireless ???? Yes .....

Yes, compared to more expensive stuff like AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile. For what you get they simply cost too much.

Yes, compared to dirt cheap (free) stuff like FreedomPOP, because FP may cost you less but FP requires you to know a lot more than RW requires you to know.

Your level of knowledge would fit Republic Wireless fairly well, once you have independent wifi working in your home and if you do live in a town with good Sprint coverage.

Your expectations of "what this stuff is all about" is like is likely off some, because you haven't ever done it before.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/01/16 at 23:50:09

2B3D2A372F3A372C580 wrote:

Slow Answer

Your Moto G would be able to pick up a wifi signal and give you unlimited free wifi data as long as you have a good wifi signal. Furthermore, a RW Moto G would be able to make free phone calls anywhere in the world for free, off of that wifi data.

As soon as you leave the wifi area and have no wifi signal, you have no wifi data or phone calling on wifi either. To augment this both companies provide Sprint tower cellular data packages and cellular calling packages, at various costs. This generally gets called "cell data" and "cell calling" and it is the most expensive part of owning a smart phone.

UGLY FACT: The Big 4 send you to tower based cell data first, to maximize their revenue stream off of you.

The current revolution in low cost is people like Republic Wireless and FreedomPOP setting their phones up to go to wifi first, then going over to cell data only as required.

Why does this all work out for me so well?

My family has good wifi at home, and when we are at work we are inside the wifi coverage of a university campus. I find the latest phones have such good ears on them that I simply can't get outside of good wifi coverage any more anywhere in the dorms areas or in the teaching buildings areas.

My previous phones did not have such good ears on them ..... on those phones I needed cell data a lot more than I do now.

========================================

Final Reason to go with Republic Wireless

Serowbot is finding out they have a forum, a community of users, who are very much like SuzukiSavage.com. You can get your questions answered over there.

Example: There is more good information about FreedomPOP on the RW forum than on FreedomPOP's own forum.

;D ..... sheet fire, boys, there is more good information on SuzukiSavage.com than on FreedomPOP's own forum.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/04/16 at 10:04:08

FreedomPOP's forum is a "delayed posting, full moderation" forum and any posts that seem "negative"are not allowed. This makes FP forums useless for troubleshooting.

This also explains why the forum is so disjointed and spotty in its coverage, and why people post so much stuff on the Republic Wireless forums about FreedomPOP this and that.

Google searches will turn it up for you though ..... where ever it is.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/06/16 at 06:26:25

OK, I have found out that FreedomPOP's free service is not quite real, it is intentionally flawed in ways that can only be fixed by paying out extra dollars for several additional services. The "massive echo issue" would require over $10 a month in extra services to try to fix it as an issue (supposedly).

This puts it on price parity with Republic Wireless, which is a GOOD service that works honestly and well.

As such, I have contacted my ebay seller to return the 2 phones under his 30 day money back guarantee (at least I will see what he has to say about the phones having massive echo issues). Since I think he really is FP, I expect some line of BS from him instead of a return authorization (in which case Ebay will handle it).

This is sad, as if FP wasn't just a rip off gimmick this would have been a groundbreaking lowering of the cell phone cost barriers.

By only supplying their free service (right along with a massive echo issue) FP claims to give you free ongoing use of the device as a backup emergency phone suitable for emergency calls, etc. So you might as well keep the free service (but it ain't free, the little charges keep on coming).

Next, if you attempt to cancel, FP tells you you have no contract and nothing to cancel, once again trying to get you to hang in there as a free customer.

I have read on line accounts of people actually reporting their charge card as "lost" as the needed step to finally shut FP off from charging them ongoing little fees and charges.

We shall see ......

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Art Webb on 02/06/16 at 07:25:59

I no longer have straight talk service, but still have the phone
I can still call 911 on it
that's free too ;)
no echo
it is too bad it's a rip off, but I'm not surprised

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/07/16 at 09:06:25

A mild echo issue also seems to be internal to the Moto E phone. Discussion on RW says if you tape over the camera mic and DON'T talk in speaker mode and don't run the volume up all the way the phones are fine.

I beg to differ, the phones are NOT FINE, the Moto E has an issue that needs a software upgrade to the phone software to fix it. Lenovo/Motorola has not provided this update required fix at this point in time.

However, the impromptu user fix as described does stop the problem. For normal folks, this may be a good enough fix.

The fix is unusable for me as I have very poor hearing now, and I need the extra volume and sometimes even use speaker phone feature to get even more volume.

:-/

Serobot, be aware that Moto G 2nd gen is reported to have a version of this problem as well.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Serowbot on 02/07/16 at 09:18:45

Phones are way too complicated nowadays...

I liked it better when you just got a phone from AT&T and gave them a couple bucks a month for their wire...

Life's too complicated.

That's why I ride a Savage... it's the motorcycle equivalent of the old black rotary phone...
;D

http://www.dhresource.com/260x260/f2/albu/g3/M01/D9/58/rBVaHVY1wdSAH3OpAAFik0gn0cI004.jpg

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/09/16 at 19:44:40

Finally pushed through the BS and got a return authorization from FreedomPOP's "secret" ebay sales arm. They were very reluctant to take their bad Moto E phones back under their 30 day warranty, but Ebay likely has told them how it has to be when you sell things with a 30 day no questions asked guarantee -- ie you honor it, or we'll do it for you.

Still, it took me 2 solid tries to get the RMA #

Now, with RMA in hand I find I am reluctant to send both of them back as one has been tweeked and tricked to work just about good enough by taping the camera mic, opening up the housing hole some (beveling it a bit and modding the case to suit) and turning the volume down to half volume when talking directly to the mic and NOT USING SPEAKER PHONE EVER.

It is set up and working ...... so so good. I have not been through a whole billing cycle so I really don't know what sort of nits nats and nerds I am going to be stuck with (although I am sure I will get hit with a 0.99 fee for not using all my data and perhaps I will get stuck with a $3.99 fee for premium voice although I cancelled it on the day I signed up).

Now, it has much much better wifi pick up than my current phone does and it gets 500 meg of free cellular data each month. Even if I got stuck paying less than $5.00 a month for using it, would it be worth keeping it as a car phone?

Or should I ship it back and catch me a new deal on a larger, better sell out phone that has good speakers and good mics and a better, clearer bigger screen?

I think I will ship them back, both of them. Get clear of the whole thing and regroup on the idea after I recover from surgery.

I realize I like the much improved wifi aspects of the Snapdragon current generation chipsets, but I also realize that FreedomPOP isn't supplying reputable good satisfaction products or service at this point in time.

Dump it and leave it, that's my choice right now.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/09/16 at 20:51:31

Conclusion:

FreedomPOP is trying to put together a phone business by using come-ons, sell-ups and web paged based mis-direction.

The advertised FreedomPOP free product doesn't work very well, and if you augment it with all the needed "extras" to get it to work, you wind up paying more than for Republic Wireless, who IS reputable and honest and straight-forward and works well.

=================================================================

If you want a low cost, non-aggravating cell phone service try out Republic Wireless.

If you want a step up, very moderate cost cell phone service try out Google Fi.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by badwolf on 02/10/16 at 12:47:22

Have you seen this article?

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375644,00.asp

Pcmag about cheap phone services.

Title: Re: Freedom POP no cost plan, $50 phone
Post by Oldfeller on 02/10/16 at 14:45:14

A different span of cheap here ---- the ones I went for are the cheapest of the cheap.