Four months after launching the world's first free mobile service, mobile carrier FreedomPop today introduced new paid subscription plans.
Starting at $4.58 per month, the lineup aims to "destroy the current industry pricing model," according to the service provider.
"With these new pricing plans we are declaring war on an industry that has for too long taken advantage of consumers and only widened the digital divide," FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols said in a statement. "We not only offer 12 months of comparable service for the price of 1 month, but all the billing complexity that frustrates users is gone. There is no need for an annual contract when the total annual cost is under $100."
Those who pay for two years of unlimited voice, text, and voicemail, plus 500MB of data upfront will be charged $110 (or $4.58 per month). A one-year agreement will set you back $80 (or $6.67 per month), but if you just want to go month by month, it's $10.99.
FreedomPop's entirely gratis plan, which includes 200 voice minutes, 500 texts, and 500MB of data, is still available.
There are some catches - particularly the number of available devices and coverage. The service launched on the HTC EVO Design smartphone in October and later signed on to use Sprint's network for completely free phone service. But as PCMag's Sascha Segan explained at the time, all calling and texting go through a voice-over-IP system that hijacks the Android dialer so it's transparent to the user. That means FreedomPop has SMS support, but no MMS support yet (it's coming) and it's extremely dependent on the consistency of the Sprint data network.
FreedomPop has attracted nearly 500,000 interested users on its beta invite list. To keep up with demand, the company recently added a BYOD (bring your own device) plan, along with a handful of new handsets, including the Samsung Galaxy S II (pictured) for $169.
"We're working hard to add high quality devices to meet the growing demand from new users," Stokols said. "The Samsung Galaxy [S] II is our more advanced device to date and we plan to add even more high-end options in the weeks to come."