FreedomPop Launches Phone Service With HTC EVO Design 4G (Updated)

After being teased for months following the launch of its mobile broadband service and being delayed, mobile broadband service provider FreedomPop has officially launched its phone service today, beginning with the HTC EVO Design 4G, a WiMax-powered device. The phone is currently available for purchase at a special launch price $99.99, with the following three service plans to choose from:

Basic 200 (free plan):

• 200 voice minutes/month
• 500 text messages
• 500 MB data

Premium 500 ($7.99/monthly)

• 500 voice minutes/month
• unlimited text messages
• 500 MB data

Unlimited ($10.99/monthly)

• unlimited voice
• unlimited text
• 500 MB data

While FreedomPop is also offering a data overage rate of $.02/MB of data used after the initial 500 MB allotment, new customers will be given an additional 1GB of data for free when activating service, with the additional data being charged at $9.99/month after the free trial ends. In the future, FreedomPop will offer additional data packages at 2GB for $20, 4GB for $35, or 5GB for $40 on top of the three monthly plans.

If choosing the free voice/text messaging plan, this means that the most one would pay would be $40 a month for data, while choosing the unlimited monthly plan and $40 data package would mean a $51 monthly rate. This all hinges on having reliable WiMax coverage, however. If reliable WiMax coverage is available, this would mean massive savings over standard carrier rates, even more if using data only and using other over-the-top apps such as Line/WhatsApp/Viber et al for all communication and messaging, instead of conventional voice minutes and text messages.

FreedomPop will expand its phone service within the next few months to include Sprint BYOD and LTE support, though the launch today is being treated as a beta launch rather than a full-scale launch as more devices will be launched later this year in preparation for next year, when the service is planned for a full launch.

Update: FreedomPop is now allowing new customers in 3G and LTE-only coverage areas to purchase the phone and service, likely due to the media coverage of the launch. While the service and phone perform best over WiMax and is optimized for such access, the company is assuring new customers signing up for the phone and service that 3G data will also work without issue for voice calls and messaging, while data access will be much slower, but still function.