Introduction
When using US services, a US phone number is always needed. There are countless articles on how to obtain a US phone number, but either they belong to VoIP numbers (such as Google Voice), which many websites do not accept, or they require monthly fees. Although there is a plan called T-Mobile Legacy PAYG, which has no monthly fee and only charges based on usage, it still needs to be topped up regularly to keep the number, and the success rate of switching to this plan through customer service is currently low.
As a website created with the goal of outputting random meaningless content, we naturally won't repeat these old tricks. What this site brings is a virtual operator with a history of providing free services for many years but has become notorious due to its constant tricks - FreedomPop.
Overview
Several Chinese articles related to FreedomPop can be found through Google, but after careful reading, it is found that these contents are outdated. This is because FreedomPop's free service has gone through several stages, and these contents are about the earlier period and do not match the current situation of FreedomPop.
FreedomPop was originally known for providing free data, and everyone could get 200 MiB of free data per month. At the same time, you can invite friends to join your "caravan," and FreedomPop will provide up to 500 MiB of additional free data per month, totaling 700 MiB. As an accessory to the data, FreedomPop provides unlimited free calls and texts, but it needs to be done through FreedomPop's dedicated app, which has a poor user experience.
Nowadays, FreedomPop has been acquired by Red Pocket (another cheap MVNO in the US), so its network has expanded to T-Mobile (originally only AT&T). With the popularity of Wi-Fi Calling technology, voice calls and texts no longer require a dedicated app, which is great news for most cloud residents.
Obtaining and Activating
There are two and a half ways to obtain the FreedomPop Free Plan, and each plan requires different costs or time. In addition, please note that all FreedomPop plans do not provide international roaming, including voice calls and texts.
- Obtain through the FreedomPop official website: Click here to purchase a SIM Kit. It provides 10 minutes of voice calls and 10 text messages, as well as 25 MiB of data on cellular networks, and unlimited calls and texts on Wi-Fi Calling. This plan is for the AT&T network.
- Purchase through Walmart: Click here to purchase a SIM Kit that includes Walmart's exclusive package. It provides 300 minutes of voice calls and 1000 text messages, as well as 100 MiB of data on cellular networks. The voice calls and text message quotas are shared on Wi-Fi Calling. This plan is for the T-Mobile network.
- Any inactive Red Pocket GSMT SIM Kit can also be used to activate the FreedomPop Free Plan. It is said that Red Pocket's GSMA card can also be used, but it is recommended to use GSMT.
The Walmart version looks like this:
And the SIM Kit itself is a completely unmarked white Kit:
After receiving the card, enter the ICCID here to activate it.
During activation, a credit card number is required. We highly recommend readers with BofA / Citi / Capital One / American Express Business & Corporate cards to create a virtual card for payment. Considering FreedomPop's previous notorious reputation and the author's personal experience, there is a risk of paying additional fees if you are not careful. Using a virtual card with expenditure management can effectively limit losses.
In addition, a billing address is required during activation. The Free Plan of FreedomPop itself is free, but in most areas of the United States, mobile network costs include various taxes and fees, which are used to pay for public facilities such as local emergency service call centers (911). However, this is contrary to the main point of this article, so this site also provides two zip codes with truly 0 additional taxes. Registering with any of these zip codes can achieve a true $0 monthly fee.
Please do not confuse the concept of "tax-free state". In general, "tax-free state" refers to areas that exempt "Sales Tax" and not all taxes!
- 89011
- 26251
During activation, you can choose to port your number or get a new number from FreedomPop. Due to the nature of FreedomPop, most of the numbers it has have been used multiple times. If you want to receive less SPAM, it is recommended to get a relatively clean number from elsewhere and port it in.
After activation, please immediately cancel "Automatic Payments" in "My Lines". Although the number is on the Free Plan, it will automatically recharge $10 every month by default. We need to cancel this automatic payment, and then re-add payment information after cancellation, and then the monthly payment will become $0.
The bill will show:
Activating FreedomPop Plan with Red Pocket SIM Card#
Currently (as of 2023-05-23), it seems that the special edition SIM card of FreedomPop on Walmart is no longer being restocked, and FreedomPop itself only provides GSMA (AT&T network) version of the free plan SIM Kit. AT&T's Wi-Fi Calling is blocked in mainland China, and additional magic is required to use it. However, as mentioned earlier in this article, FreedomPop has been acquired by Red Pocket, and Red Pocket provides GSMT (T-Mobile network) SIM cards. Can Red Pocket's GSMT SIM be used to activate FreedomPop?
Undoubtedly, the answer is yes. However, Red Pocket's SIM card is not registered in FreedomPop's SKU, so it will prompt "GSMT SIM without a plan" and cannot be directly registered for the free plan. It needs to be purchased with a plan and then downgraded.
The method of purchasing a plan is not mentioned here, and I believe readers of this site should be able to do it independently.
After purchasing the plan, go to the "My Lines" page and click "Change your plan" in the left sidebar.
Click "See Details" on the current plan.
Click "I would like to downgrade to the free plan" on the new page.
Click the gray small text "I am sure, take me to the Free Plan." in the pop-up window.
You can then downgrade to the free plan. Note that you still need to check if there are any automatic recharge settings, same as mentioned above.
Wi-Fi Calling
Since all FreedomPop plans do not provide international roaming, Wi-Fi Calling must be registered when used outside the United States.
However, FreedomPop does not have any self-service to enable Wi-Fi Calling. If you try to enable it directly on your phone, you will find that it cannot be started. At this time, you need to contact customer service to add an e-911 address and enable Wi-Fi Calling.
Click here to contact online customer service (by the way, FreedomPop's support page is almost identical to Red Pocket, and of course, enabling Wi-Fi Calling requires contacting customer service, which is completely consistent with Red Pocket). FreedomPop's customer service is available from 8 am to 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday to Friday, which is from 12 am to 9 am in China.
Inform customer service that you need to enable Wi-Fi Calling, and they will ask for your FreedomPop number, name, and email. Then they will ask you to provide an e-911 address, you can provide any address you like (but not too outrageous, such as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500).
The customer service will quickly inform you that it has been enabled, and at this time, you just need to open it on your phone to see the Wi-Fi Calling icon. Because FreedomPop is wild enough, you won't even see the FreedomPop brand name on your phone.
If you want to test whether Wi-Fi Calling is indeed effective (in some cases, only the signaling server is connected and the IMS data is not connected, so Wi-Fi Calling will be displayed but cannot be used), you can dial the free 611 call (the short number designated by the United States to directly reach your mobile operator's customer service).
Number Retention
Since it is a free plan, in order to reduce waste, FreedomPop will require a "confirmation" to be done on the official website every 30 days. Just open "My Lines" and you will see a banner that requires clicking a button to confirm that you are still actively using the line, otherwise the entire plan and number may be revoked.