FreedomPop to offer free broadband to everyone

Dec 9 2011
By Fred Hoot - Google+

Niklas Zennstrom, a co-founder of Skype and owner of the Atomico investment firm has decided to invest some money to bring broadband to the masses.  He has an idea to bring free broadband access to everyone in America.

To do this, he founded FreedomPop and has just signed a deal with LightSquared for the service.  The company plans to launch in 2012.  In the last half of next year, LightSquared will be bringing up their 4G LTE network.  FreedomPop will then start turning on customers to the Internet via mobile broadband and other advanced services.

FreedomPop will first start with underserved areas.  FreedomPop also plans to offer free voice service too.

The Chief Operating Officer of FreedomPop, Matt Ingrid announced “The Internet is a right, not a privilege. With the economic efficiencies delivered by LightSquared’s wholesale business model, we can achieve our objective to deliver flexible high-speed wireless access to anyone at a fraction of the cost and inconvenience seen in today’s market.”

The CEO of LightSquared and its Chairman, Sanjiv Ahuja, said “FreedomPop represents the kind of disruptive service model that LightSquared is enabling, and shares our belief that broadband access is a right for everyone.  Our nationwide network will allow FreedomPop to make a profound impact by delivering affordable high-speed wireless access to underserved communities across the country.”

FreedomPop has a home page where you can sign up to “Get early access and launch updates…”  I have already signed up.  If anyone can come up with a business model to offer free broadband to everyone in the United States and still make a profit, Niklas has to be that man.

I have an idea: Once I get FreedomPop’s free broadband, I’ll use Skype for my free calls.  Hmmm… can I reverse-tether my smartphone and have it use FreedomPop’s free broadband?

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