Niklas Zennstrom Planning To Launch A Free Wireless Service Called FreedomPop

FreedomPop is an upcoming startup that was founded by Niklas Zennstrom. Zennstrom is best known for co-founding services like KaZaa, Skype, and Rdio. FreedomPop i sa company that plans to offer free basic wireless services for laptops and smartphones. FreedomPop is testing their service with a selected group of U.S. users and they plan to launch next year.

Customers would be able to use a certain amount of wireless web access for free. Additional services would come at a cost. FreedomPop expects that about 10% of their user base would pay the fees associated with the premium services.

Zennstrom has a partnership in place with LightSquared Inc. FreedomPop wants to make access to the Internet over wireless free, which would shake up the telecommunications industry as a whole. In a way, Zennstrom is directly competing with companies like Boingo.

FreedomPop may offer the service through a dongle which may be connected to smartphones or laptops. The company would distribute the devices through retailers, which may require a deposit of $49. When the service is cancelled and the hardware is returned, the $49 would be returned.

[BusinessWeek]

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