Freedom Sometimes Is Free
4G provider Clearwire Corporation is teaming with FreedomPop, a "disruptive" wireless broadband company backed by Skype co-founder and entrepreneur Niklas Zennstrom, inking a strategic wholesale relationship supporting FreedomPop’s pending U.S. 4G mobile broadband service.
Less than a year old, FreedomPop says it’s building “a new wave telecom company…aim(ed at) providing disruptive voice and Internet services to all Americans and to ensure that no one is left off the ‘connected grid.’” Its service is slated to go commercial sometime this year.
FreedomPop says it will pay wholesale rates for access to Clearwire’s 4G network but specific terms of the agreement weren’t revealed.
"FreedomPop’s ultimate goal of providing our customers with a free mobile broadband alternative will soon be realized, thanks to Clearwire’s proven 4G network services," comments Tony Miller, FreedomPop’s vice president/Marketing. "This agreement enables FreedomPop to offer a disruptive retail service, providing free, flexible, high-speed Internet access to millions of Americans."
Adds Don Stroberg, Clearwire’s senior vice president/Wholesale, "Enabling innovative 4G business models with our mobile broadband network is a key part of Clearwire’s wholesale business strategy. FreedomPop represents the kind of disruptive service model that will shake up the exploding wireless broadband market."
Wash.-based Clearwire is backed by Intel Capital, Comcast, Sprint, Google, Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks.