
Free mobile voice, text and data plans coming to UK - funkylexoo
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-32704051
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gadders
Has anyone seen the film the Kingsmen? [1]

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsman:_The_Secret_Service#Pl...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingsman:_The_Secret_Service#Plot)

Seventeen years later, Professor James Arnold is kidnapped by unknown
assailants, led by Internet billionaire Richmond Valentine and his henchwoman
Gazelle. One of Hart's compatriots, "Lancelot," attempts to stage a rescue,
but fails as he is cut in half by Gazelle. Valentine, known for his
philanthropy, continues to meet with various heads of state and VIPs; some of
whom go missing afterwards. _He also announces a giveaway of SIM cards,
granting free cellular and Internet access._

~~~
jotm
Lol, yeah that was my first thought, as well :-)

Though at this point, Zuckerberg and his Internet.org is more similar to
Valentine's plan (excluding the genocide, probably) :-)

On a related note: Kingsman has some very nice camera work!

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gambiting
In Poland we had free data plans for a couple years now from company called
Aero2 - they won the right to use a certain frequency,but only under the
guarantee that they would offer free data usage on their network to
everyone(for up to 5 years I think?). So I know a lot of people who bought
cheap 3G modems and got their simcard with Aero2 just to have free internet at
home, there are no usage limitations, except for the speed limitation(is
limited up to 5mbps)). There is no contract either, you order the simcard
online and can use it straight away.

~~~
blfr
There used to be no usage limitations except the 512Kb/s speed limit mandated
by the regulator but later they introduced session length limits (60 minutes)
and started requiring captchas on every connect. It's not very convenient or
useful any more.

~~~
keithpeter
Just in case any entrepreneurs are reading this, I could live with that.

Such a package would also help my students a lot as well. We can probably find
refurbished laptops from local recyclers the issue has always been the cost
and faff factor of an Internet connection. A 3G mobile Internet pay as you go
dongle is affordable now and again (£2 per 24 hour period, £4 for 3 days &c
with low download caps for streaming content) but not all the time.

UK: I currently use a stunningly unreliable broadband connection which is
around 6km from the local exchange, itself getting on in years but not
scheduled for replacement. I have to pay a line rental and then a monthly fee
for a broadband package on-top of that. About 2 miles from here they have
fibre-to-cabinet and download speeds that max out the wifi card in my old
Thinkpad (around 3Mbytes/sec).

A _reliable_ half megabit even would be fine for remote desktop and email and
wasting time on forums. I do big downloads from local cafe anyway because of
the frustration factor.

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frou_dh
From the Guardian coverage:

> FreedomPop is different to most mobile phone service providers because it
> only uses mobile data, employing an app available for Android and iPhone to
> send and receive text messages and make calls that are not carried over the
> traditional mobile voice network.

Still, free data is worthy of attention even if the calling/texting experience
sounds iffy.

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jonathonf
There have been plenty of these sorts of MVNOs in the past. For example, Ovivo
tried to stay afloat by offering subscription plans above its free tiers.
Still went bust.

When something is free there will always be huge uptake of it (see also: NHS).
Some people will even get around the limits by having a collection of SIMs
rather than pay for using the service (just like people will wait to go to the
local GP to get an item for their child free on a prescription rather than get
it for £2 from any pharmacy).

~~~
keithpeter
I share your skepticism about FreePop, and shall hang onto my GiffGaff sim
with the £5 a month 'goodybag'. I'm your typical very low average monthly
revenue customer.

On the NHS, I think we will need to disagree. Most people pay a prescription
charge[1], to the extent that my own GP gives me a _private_ prescription for
the very low cost BP painkillers I use when my lower vertebrae are playing up
as it is cheaper than paying the prescription charge.

The NHS is free at the point of need - I think most people in the UK know that
it is paid for from general taxation, and very few people actively want to
change that.

[1]
[http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/Prescriptionc...](http://www.nhs.uk/NHSEngland/Healthcosts/Pages/Prescriptioncosts.aspx)

Now: would there be any market for data on location/activity from the large
number of SIMs registered with such a company?

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maguirre
Freedom Pop, ugh my experience with them has been one of bait and switch. I
bought a hotspot from them and I ended up canceling a couple of months after
that due to unauthorized charges and suspicious account upgrades. To add
insult to injury you have to call them to cancel your account something that
took me hours to finalize. The one bright spot is that their customer service
do not contest at requests to drop fees/charges it must be a common request
from customers

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phelm
This will be perfect for IOT devices

~~~
StavrosK
Oh wow, I didn't think of that when I saw this, but you're right. With this, I
could place devices everywhere, in my car, my summer house, my garden,
wherever, and they could all communicate with a central server.

I should probably work faster on that secure messaging protocol for embedded
devices I wanted to design.

~~~
bucketsofdirt
Something like shh?

~~~
StavrosK
Do you mean SSH? No, it's basically ECC keys that devices can sign their
requests/responses with, over a message queue, combined with a simple pairing
protocol to "trust" keys on initial setup.

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arethuza
After my teenage son manage to run up £389 pounds of calls in one month on a
package with "Free" calls I've been a bit wary of "Free" anything... :-)

Mind you was all my fault - when he got his phone he didn't make calls, ever,
so I didn't pay attention in the shop when they explained what "free" meant.
However, teenage behaviour changes drastically at various points and suddenly
vast amounts of calls were being made to girls...

~~~
jbrooksuk
Usually they refund this kind of bill.

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wodenokoto
I think the extra service of getting a phone number in a different country is
almost better than the free allowance. Although more and more people I know
abroad are using data bound services more than they are calling/texting.

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lucasisola
The catch is full data storage and surveillance by the UK gov.

~~~
caractacus
Well that's not on when I pay good money to Vodafone for the same service.

