FreedomPop Review: Unboxing, Download Speeds, Size Comparisons
I ended up ordering a FreedomPop mobile hotspot last week for the 500 mb in free wireless internet each money, and have been playing with it for a couple of days. Here’s a review including what came in the box, hotspot size comparison, download speed test results, and my overall initial impressions of the service.
Unboxing. The mobile hotspot “hockey puck” shipped the next day after ordering, and arrived a few days after that. Inside the box was the hotspot, a USB charging cable, and a USB AC adapter. The charging cable port appears to be the micro-USB standard size. I included a credit card for size comparison.
The hotspot is quite small and fits in a pocket or purse nicely. I placed it next to a naked iPhone 4 for width and thickness comparison. I’d say it is about the size of half a modern smartphone and the same thickness.
The unit does a pretty good job conveying a lot of useful information in a small package. The power LED changes color to indicate low, medium, or high battery charge. The WiFi LED indicates either users connected or no users connected. The 4G LED indicates searching, weak, good, or excellent signal strength.
Setup. The hotspot came pre-charged, just turn it on and go. The default name of the WiFi network and the WiFi password are printed on the unit itself. Once connected via WiFi, you can change the settings by visiting 192.168.1.1 in your web browser. The default password for the control panel is “admin”. You’ll want to change both the WiFi password and the control panel password for security reasons. Other than that, it works right away.
Download Speeds. I’m sure download speeds will vary for everyone, but here are my results from SpeedTest.net. Over multiple tries over 2 days, I achieved an average download speed of about 1.2 Mbps down and 0.5 Mbps up using the 4G Clearwire WiMax hotspot. That’s actually about 50% slower than the 3G cellular data speeds on my iPhone, and much slower than my home broadband connection. Not that impressive for “4G” with “good” or “excellent” signal strength according to the indicator lights. I didn’t pay the extra fee for their “Speed Plus” option, so there may be some throttling going on for us free users.
WiFi-only and iPod Touch users. If you have an off-contract smartphone or iPod Touch and you only want to use the free data for voice calls with no monthly bills at all, you can do it. I tested both the Vonage Mobile and Talkatone free iOS apps and made outgoing calls successfully if a little grainy. If you buy the $3 GV Connect app, you can also receive phone calls using your Google Voice number. I’d guesstimate 500 mb will get you around 200-400 minutes.
Initial Impressions. The hotspot size is great; I’d actually prefer it over an iPhone or iPod Touch sleeve. The download speeds are somewhat disappointing, but for casual usage it should be fine. In the end, this is not a premium product, but a discount service with a few mostly-avoidable gotchas for those looking to minimize their monthly bills. (An eagle-eyed reader pointed out that the $89 refundable deposit is only refundable within the first 12 months.) If you combine a used smartphone with WiFi + a cheap prepaid carrier + FreedomPop + casual usage, you could probably have a little bit of everything for well under $20 a month. To your friends, you’d appear to be “keeping up with the Jones” with an $80 monthly bill… but secretly saving 60 bucks a month = $720 a year per line.
By Jonathan Ping | Reviews | 10/11/12, 2:28am
October 11th, 2012 at 4:59 am
I would get this but it is not available in my area yet (rural PA). Right now my only option is DSL for $52/mo.
Does the service allow incoming connections, for example, could you run a web server, game server, or remote desktop service using this internet connection?
October 11th, 2012 at 6:28 am
How does it do at streaming video from, say, Netflix or Amazon? Also, how does it do when you aren’t in one constant location? I’d be interested in something like this to be able to stream video to a wifi tablet for my kid(s) in the car.
October 11th, 2012 at 7:17 am
Thanks for the password reset tip. I hadn’t figured that out yet.
October 11th, 2012 at 7:35 am
I ordered the square-shaped one, and I am waiting for its ship-out. Reading the article, I got the feeling that the FreedomPop Hotspot would work the same as that of a brand named CLEAR, but the latter charges monthly fee of $35 and requires an initial nonrefundable purchase of its Hotspot for $89. I ordered the CLEAR Hotspot on August 15, 2012, received it on Saturday, August 18th, and tried it during our trip to the Denver area but there was no signal in Fraser and Winter Park, CO, and no signal in Boulder, CO, which is 30 miles from Denver, Colorado.
Just a thought.
October 11th, 2012 at 8:47 am
Virgin Mobile $25, 300 minute, unlimited text and data plan with almost any Android phone will provide built in hotspot capability, either natively or with little effort. The Virgin Mobile $25 plan is now $35 for new customers. I used my phones hotspot capability while in the cruise ports in Miami, St Thomas and Puerto Rico.
October 11th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Andy, This wouldn’t be a good choice for video. Streaming video eats a lot of bandwidth. You’d use up the 500MB of free data very quickly. An online calculator at Verizon says that standard definition video would be 650MB for just an hour. So with only 500MB free data you’d get less than 1 hour of video. After that its $.02 per MB which would be quite expensive for video, like >$10 per hour.
October 11th, 2012 at 1:41 pm
I got the same device with no Speed Plus, and my download speed here in NJ is much better than yours. I consistently get 7~10Mb/s download speed which is comparable to typical 3G. For now I’m happy with the service, but there are many unknowns so I will wait and see. Thanks for the tip on deposit refund limitation.
October 12th, 2012 at 8:39 am
Didnt see any comments on the previous post but is there any competitor paid plans that are reasonably priced? Preferably on a more stable backhaul than Wimax as well?
October 12th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
I have been playing with the hotspot for a couple of days now and I use it during my commute to NYC from NJ. The coverage along the route is spotty and it takes intermittent waits for signal, but when there is a signal, the download is acceptable for a website. I have used a few apps like engadget, bgr, nytimes, newser and huffingtonpost and with all the waiting for the signal i must have hardly used it for an hour in the last 3 days. I checked the usage today and it has already blown off 40mb. This is with spotty coverage. I suspect the usage is being blown off in packets of Mbs every time you connect and does not indicate actual usage. Has anyone else noticed this?
October 13th, 2012 at 10:53 am
the included 500mb is nothing to sneeze at. however, make sure you stay under 400mb used or the account with automatically top off with 10$ charge unless you change the defaults in your online settings.
Netzero cut their device prices but only offers 200mb/mo for a year, then it is no longer free. Freedompop is better in the long term.
am consider getting the USB stick + a cradlepoint router to create an at home solution for occasional use and mobile laptop.
October 17th, 2012 at 4:14 am
It’s a shame the download speeds are so average as looks like a great little hotspot and the 500 free megabytes is a nice bonus.
October 19th, 2012 at 4:22 pm
Getting 5 to 8 mbps download and 1 to 2 mbps upload in Miami with strong signal.
I streamed Netflix smoothly for a few minutes on my iPad with no hiccups. It ate up around 30 Mb though.
October 22nd, 2012 at 4:27 am
How is it you received yours so fast? I ordered my wifi sleeve 3 months ago and am getting nothing but the run around from Freedompop.
October 30th, 2012 at 9:21 am
I do wonder if you add a freedom friend if the extra 10meg of data last 60 days or is recurring every month. As I read the terms a referral signup is recurring. I guess time will tell on this.
November 7th, 2012 at 9:23 am
This is a SCAM! I ordered the FreedomSpot Photon a couple weeks ago. It arrived in a torn-open box with a torn up invoice and a barcode torn off the box (not sure if this will affect my ability to return yet).
Turned on the Photon at 7 PM and watched an Amazon streaming video (1996 “Eraser”) between 7 and 9 PM. Next day I find out I was charged a whopping FORTY BUCKS in overage charges!!
Apparently streaming an Amazon movie ate 2 Gb. Their “notification” that I was near an overage did not come until after midnight.
Here is the Customer Support reply I was given:
David,
Our devices and 500mb plans allow for users to freely surf the internet and check emails. Watching movies uses data much more intensely than simple internet usage. Unfortunately, it is against our company policy to issue you a refund for data you’ve used.
Heres a clarification regarding our top up feature.
Due to the slight delay in the reporting of data usage it is possible that you have surpassed the 400MB threshold and exceeded your 500MB free data allotment during the window in which your data usage was unknown by our system because of the delay. Because our system is alerted that you have surpassed the 400mb threshold after you have actually used more than 500MB of data, you are charged for this additional data used at a rate $0.02 per MB as an overage. Because it doesn’t make sense to charge your payment method repeatedly with multiple charges of less than a dollar, we charge your payment method $10, credit your FreedomPop account with $10, and deduct the charges associated with the overage data used from this credit. So your account is not being topped-up, you are paying for overage data used. Since you have a credit in your FreedomPop account greater than $2 your account will not be suspended and you can continue to use data.
–So, basically, you have enough Mb each month to log on. Then you are getting into overages, which they will happily bill you quickly in $10 increments and notify you that you are approaching that limit 3 hours after you have passed it. On top of that, their policy is ‘No Refunds for Data Used’.
OK, this one is going back.
November 7th, 2012 at 8:44 pm
@Dave – If you read what jim said, the 6th comment above, “This wouldn’t be a good choice for video. … which would be quite expensive for video, like >$10 per hour.” Sorry for your overlooking this message. Take care.
November 9th, 2012 at 12:03 pm
@Frenchfry
10meg of data per friend is recurring every month as long as the friend remains a subscriber of freedompop.
November 15th, 2012 at 4:15 pm
@ Dave — you’re a dumbass who should probably stay away from computers if you couldn’t figure out that a FULL LENGTH movie was going to exceed the modest 500mb cap of free data you’re given. It’s interesting that you’ve chosen to post your stupidity on multiple sites in an effort to bash FP. Get over it, it’s not their fault and the only thing they’re guilty of is putting out a product that isn’t 100% moron proof.
November 21st, 2012 at 8:27 am
I’ve been using the Hotspot for over a month now. So far, no charges and it works very well. It was incredibly useful during Sandy where everyone’s power and internet went out. Was sweet to be able to use my laptops when everyone was running around like chickens looking for places to recharge their cell phones. Obviously, FreedomPop is a business model built on preying on fools like Dave who don’t read the fine print. This is fine for the rest of us who do. If you are one who pays attention to detail, using FreedomPop for free might be one the best deals ever. Well almost. That British Airways Chase Visa will probably never be matched.
January 27th, 2013 at 12:30 pm
FreedomPop in Seattle has speeds slower than 3g, and no you can’t stream videos or play any sort of RTS games on it. In addition, it drops out pretty frequently unless you’re standing outside with it.
March 8th, 2013 at 7:30 pm
Hi All.
As it has been a couple of months since the last post, I am curious to know the perception of those who have/had the device. Is there anything that was not explicitly stated in the policy that would help a new consumer? What do/did you do with your device? How long does your battery last if you have the Photon? Do you still like your device? Any other material information would be appreciated. Thank you!!
*I understand that coverage can be “spotty”, but that is to be expected as this is a startup in Beta testing*
March 11th, 2013 at 2:42 pm
The only gotcha to me is the 500MB/top-up stuff. If you DONT sign up to automatically top-up when you hit 400MB, you ONLY get 400MB. When you sign up, carefully read ALL of the text. It will default to top up and try to switch you to the faster speed. I had to attempt sign up 3 times before my invoice actually came to 0$/mo. I actually have not seen what happens when you hit the 400MB.
I do find it can take a while to get a signal; maybe 1-2 mins. It is seamless connection to device locally. Battery has lasted the 6-7hrs it says, but I was not actively using it all that time.
In some very limited driving testing, the signal dropped quite a bit. My experience with basic youtube video feeds for news shows is about 100-150MB per show. I like the Opera browser since it has an option to turn off graphics down loading and also shows your data download total so far. FP updates your data usage about 30-60 mins after you start.
It is a great tool for the casual user on the go. Reading basic web content and email is fine. I prefer it to unknown free wifi spots. Speeds are fine to me though I dont have measurements.
I think the new 10GB/$10 home broadband deal is a game changer and will probably switch from ATT after my discount period is over.
March 12th, 2013 at 5:18 pm
Using it in SF Bay area, particularly South Bay. Speeds are not that fast (1.2 MB down, 0.1 up). But hey, it’s free. Thank you for pointing out that item must be refunded in 12 months.
I’m sure Verizon/AT&T will drop data prices soon, so soon everyone will win (except Verizon/AT&T).
March 15th, 2013 at 3:59 pm
Can you play games from POGO and if so approx how many MB per month will it use if you play Scrabble for approx 2 hrs. per day?
March 17th, 2013 at 8:09 am
@TacoCat, are you paying for Speed Plus? I’m in Seattle and getting 12/1.5Mbps generally. Signal of course is bad inside since it’s WiMax but streaming video is fine. Was wondering if I should cancel Speed Plus but sounds like maybe not.
March 28th, 2013 at 11:56 am
I had my first experience with going over 400MB with no top-up set up. I had used 395MB prior to logging in (prior day, not recent log in) and then used 28MB more with no problem before I logged off. However, when I tried later to sync up with 423MB on my usage meter, I could no longer get a connection. When I logged into my account, it has a window saying I am blocked until I deposited more $$ in my account (which I didnt).
So as long as you start a session with under 400MB, you can use over 400MB/mo w/ no top up set up. You technically dont have 500MB free each month unless you start a connection with under 400MB noted…. I am not sure if they have a hard cut off at 500MB. When my new 30 day window started up, I was able to sync up again.
May 15th, 2013 at 2:57 pm
I got my hotspot device about a week ago. Despite the fact that Freedom Pop says I’m in a covered area, I have not been able to get a 4G signal to lock in. I get 4 or 5 bars/lights, but nothing. I’m about ready to return it (I’ve tried it in multiple rooms/multiple positions/etc.) – any tips about how to orient it? I live in Pittsburgh, right in the city.
May 20th, 2013 at 11:02 am
@JulieJulieJulie if you get a signal, it should work. I doubt it’s the device itself that’s bad–if you haven’t already, try contacting support and see if it’s just not properly registered or something.