FreedomPop continued its march toward global domination -- or perhaps more appropriately, its global disruption -- of the mobile market with the announcement that it will set up a London base and expand its free mobile service to the UK.
The company also announced its upcoming Jetsetter, a roaming data SIM that gives world travelers 100 MB of free "high-speed" data whether you're in the UK, Spain or France. If you want more data, it will cost you $10 per gigabyte.
"FreedomPop users will receive 200 MBs of data, 200 voice minutes and 200 texts completely free each month via the FreedomPop app or new international SIM," read a press release in part. Note that this is significantly less than the free U.S. plan, which includes 500 MB of data and 500 text messages (although the 200 voice minutes part is the same).
Calls and texts are unlimited between FreedomPop users; in some situations, that alone is likely to sway families or groups of friends to the service. FreedomPop users can make free international calls to some 60 countries, and you can add a second line from any of those countries and let your loved ones outside of the UK call you at local rates. FreedomPop did not elaborate on which countries are on that list, but it did say that it's available for the U.S., at £2 per month.
You get to keep any unused rollover data -- a crucial feature on a plan that gives you just 200 MB -- and the company promised "anonymous browsing to protect [your] online privacy [from] third-party hackers."
The FreedomPop service will hit the UK on day one, and Jetsetter will be available initially in the UK, Spain and France, but the company plans to roll out service to more countries as soon as it hashes out negotiations with the various necessary carriers. FreedomPop expects its service to quickly expand to five more countries this year. Presumably, it expects service to reach 20 total countries, as it clearly stated that it expects Jetsetter to do the same.
If you want in on the UK FreedomPop beta, which will launch this summer, head here. The Jetsetter beta will roll out "later this year," and you can sign up here.
This is the part of the article where we'd list pricing, but the basic FreedomPop service and first 100 MB of Jetsetter is free.
Related:
- FreedomPop Launches 'Premium' Voice Service Using Old-Fashioned 2G
- FreedomPop Launches 'LTE Alternative' Carrier-Independent Wi-Fi Service, $5 Per Month
- FreedomPop Now Lets You Call Abroad For Free, Too
- FreedomPop Breaks New Ground, Begins Making Own Tablets And Smartphones
Seth Colaner is the News Director at Tom's Hardware. Follow him on Twitter @SethColaner. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.
