FreedomPop To Add LTE By The End Of The Year

Pre-orders for FreedomPop's WiMAX iPhone case began in May with the company offering 500MB of free data for those willing to pay $99 for the case. The company is hoping to shift free customers onto a paid model later on, but for now is offering the data for free. The case makes use of ClearWire's WiMAX, but GigaOm reports that FreedomPop will be leveraging LTE in the future.

FreedomPop is said to have signed a deal with the Now Network that would make use of 3G and 4G services later on in the year. The company plans to offer an iPhone case that will have WiMAX, LTE, and CDMA radios for the best possible coverage. As the licensor's LTE network becomes more robust in 2013, FreedomPop will begin to phase out the WiMAX radios and rely primarily on LTE.

500MB of free LTE access every month doesn't sound so terrible. More data can be acquired too, with FreedomPop hoping users will leverage social networks to promote the brand and earn up to 1GB of access. FreedomPop customers can also transfer data between each other's accounts if they're feeling particularly generous. Even if you go over the free limit, data can be purchased outright as normal at one cent per megabyte.