" use Hangouts for calls"
Is call quality satisfactory while moving or do you only use it over wifi while stationary?
I tried to use FluidCall while moving and it was not satisfactory even though there was LTE coverage in the area but the signal seemed not to be sufficiently stable to permit conversation.
Eh...it's inconsistent. Stationary calling w/ Hangouts while on LTE or decent WiFi is excellent. Calls on Hangouts while moving (say in a car), I've had it at great quality to I can't hear a darn thing. But we each (other than my mother) use less than 50 min/month and in those situations fall back to messaging so we'll bear with it.
We're also trying out a few older phones on CellNuvo which is working out great so far. So our setup is to have our primary phones on FP w/ data and Hangouts VOIP for typical use; CellNuvo as a "car phone".
Not saying it's ideal, but it's free, and good enough for us. Like I said above, only my mother wants real cell quality all the time. She's happy with her Premium Voice trial so far, so we're planning to keep her on that $3.99/month upgrade. The rest of us can deal with VOIP.
Yes. Primarily, if FP tries to bill you and your payment method fails, your account will likely be suspended until you update your payment method or get the bill removed. I look at it as giving me the right to review a bill before I would pay it.
Honestly, though, if you are a careful and attentive person (and you all seem like it on this thread!), you should have zero serious problems. Worst case, like that one poster, you notice a stray charge and you message them on Facebook to have it reversed. Or you are like me, 9 orders/accounts and I've never even seen a stray charge. At this point, I would be 100% comfortable keeping a valid credit card on file at FreedomPop.
I've known about FreedomPop for a long time but didn't bite until R+ reduced their allotments.
I was worried enough by complaints that I went with a $5 sim from ebay where the seller sets everything up and your credit card information is not used.
After that, I just went and purchased the sims for 1c directly and used a virtual credit card.
Some deal posts on slickdeals include the direct links for downgrading plans and service. But if you're a thorough person who is interesting in clicking on every option in a dashboard to understand the entire system, you should be able to downgrade to an entirely free plan as well as add the free 100 international minutes.
For 1c and using a virtual credit card, there is no risk. I've also seen that the customer service by the freedompop representative on slickdeals is very good as well.
Yes Freedompop + Premium Voice for $3.99 is not a bad option for somebody who needs data and cell voice quality.
I need data primarily and use few minutes but when I do, I prefer [strike]Dos Equis[/strike] cell voice quality.
So I'm awaiting the arrival of a dual sim adapter to see if I can get the best of both worlds for a truly minimal cost. Ideally I'm looking at putting Tello plus a FreedomPop LTE sim on my Nexus 6.
But I've heard that a CDMA provider and a GSM provider cannot be mixed with these dual sim adapters. In which case, I might go with LycaMobile for celluar voice and FreedomPop for data. The only thing about LycaMobile is that I recall them not being true cellular voice but some kind of high quality VoIP working with the T Mobile network. My third option would be to convert my Ting account with a decent balance to a SIM account but the $9 charge for a SIM card seems wrong to me!
[quote="JTSR71" post=1173
"I was worried enough by complaints that I went with a $5 sim from ebay where the seller sets everything up and your credit card information is not used"
How exactly does the ebay deal work?
Thanks.
I did look at how FP responded to complaints on one site and thought the answers were good, well presented and reasonable. While I do not know the facts in any of the cases, from just reading the way FP responded the impression I got was quite positive.
The seller sets up the account with your name and address. This is a given because freedompop ship the sim to you directly.
The seller sets up 10+ freedom friends to get you 500mb extra data a month. They also do the necessary downgrades to make the monthly cost zero.
All sellers who advertise the sim with the extra data for life and zero monthly cost will have to do the above.
What may be different is how they set up the username, password and credit card details.
In my case, the email address was not mine. The credit card details were not mine but the name and address were. At that point, you are free to change it or leave it. You are also free to pay the $5 to prevent auto top ups.
Another seller who I requested a cancellation from, didn't reply to me but the sim came anyway. Unlike the first seller, they didn't communicate any login details. So I didn't use that sim at all because if I can't access the account, I don't want somebody else being able to instead.
In retrospect, it is simple enough to buy the 1c sim with a virtual credit card instead. But then you do need to work to get the 10 freedom friends. Like some others, I decided to just get multiple accounts (have 7) so I have all the friends I need plus the ability to gift data.
If you get 11 sims and have a triple sim phone, you're looking at having 3600MB in a single device.
I set up an account and received an AT&T sim. With friends and family, I get 700MB per month.
I can see myself going over this occasionally. I'm thinking of getting another sim using a different email address. If I don't use the 2nd sim for a period of time does it get deactivated? Is there anything I need to be aware of with maintaining a 2nd account?
One other question: Is the $5 credit to disable auto-top up refundable?
Possibly. But you can reactivate it if that happens.
No. Freedompop only allows up to five devices per credit card, however.
No.
I think I may have found a problem with the Freedompop Global sim. My Google Voice app will not refresh (send or receive) when connected to 3G. It could be because of the U.K. address? I noticed today that all my GV messages came in all at once when it connected to wifi.
Edit: Also, Excel would not open my spreadsheets in my OneDrive. I've not tried if Outlook has a problem. No emails yet today. But I know I had connection because I can browse web pages and a few other apps needing mobile data. I think maybe because of the U.K. address.
What is the downside to adding a second FP line to an existing account as opposed to opening in a new email/account?
You cannot receive shared data on a second line to a single account.
For CDMA, you'd be capped at 1,000MB assuming you have at least ten "friends" connected. For the Global or LTE SIMs, your be capped at 700MB.
If you open it on its own account, you can be shared up to another 500MB monthly.
I tried the global sim and the connection was sporadic. The UK address also caused problems with some websites since they think you are out of the USA. The only advantage with the global sim is if you are traveling internationally.
The AT&T LTE sim has been working flawlessly.
Yes. I think so too. I bought the global sim because we have Sprint phones and will only work with international sims. Getting a domestic sim unlock from sprint is impossible for us. We bought our phones from Craigslist.
I didn't think about using global sims in sprint devices. Maybe I'll try it when my sim card adapter arrives from "Chi Na".
If you have a second FP line on a single account, how do you earn the extra 500 MB with 10 friends for the second line?
So to test it further, I put the global sim in my dual-sim phone and the same problem is there. But when I switch back to the Freedompop LTE sim, everything works. It must be a region restriction for certain apps.
I have a few accounts with multiple SIMs (from before I got the whole FP thing figured out).
When I added 10 friends the primary device got 500 MB of free data right away. The other SIMs stayed at 200 MB.
After the month rolled the other devices all got 500 MB of friends data added, as well, without me having to do anything else.
Unfortunately, there's no way to "share" additional data with them but I've got enough data that I don't worry about it.
How do you install/use the FreedomPop API Python script mentioned in the OP?
Try my fork of the project here:
https://github.com/tonywagner/fpopclient-alerts
Let me know if you have any questions!