Free wireless broadband! Yes, that’s right. Beginning in mid-2012, FreedomPop will start providing Americans with free wireless broadband. Built on the backbone of wholesale carrier LightSquared’s 4G long-term evolution (LTE) network; the company is only one of many likely to pop up in the coming months to provide mobile broadband access.
“The Internet is a right, not a privilege,” said Matt Ingrid, COO of FreedomPop. “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.”
FreedomPop has contracted to use access from LightSquared to offer so-called disruptive broadband and voice service to all Americans. But who would want disruptive service? Founded by Skype co-founder, Niklas Zennstrom, the recent start-up’s service would currently be disruptive to other spectrums of radio frequency already assigned to wireless services like GPS (it won’t disrupt itself).
The wireless spectrum is spread thin by the many services we use every day, from GPS devices to broadcast television stations to Bluetooth headsets. Since the biggest owners of the usable radio frequencies buy and sell them at a premium, it is practically impossible to create a small-scale telecommunications company from scratch. What makes LightSquared unique and innovative is its “backbone” LTE network. Instead of being proprietary and keeping its network to itself like Verizon Wireless, Sprint and others; LightSquared uses its network to contract out start-up companies, making the impossible more probable.
A new sub-market is opening to provide users with market competition yet again. And with the first retail company providing free service, the consumer finally has the upper hand. Who’s excited about this? This guy.
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