Wireless service provider FreedomPop eyeing a profit and new telco partnerships after seeing success with its low-cost over-the-top business model.
According to Reuters, FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols said the company – which partnered with Sprint to launch in the United States in 2012 – is expecting to post its first net profit by the end of this year. Stokols said the company is also aiming to lock down a partnership with a second U.S. wireless carrier by year’s end.
Stokols told Reuters FreedomPop holds a certain allure for carriers in that its technology can help lower the cost of subscriber plans and offer more options to the carriers’ low-price subscription base. Stokols said carriers who partner with FreedomPop would also benefit from the data traffic it draws without having to spend on customer acquisitions or service costs.
FreedomPop offers customers an allotment of free voice minutes, test messages and data, but also offers paid packages for customers who want to increase their allowance. FreedomPop’s app has been downloaded 100,000 to 500,000 times in the Google Play store. The app is also available for iOS devices.
In the U.K., where FreedomPop launched last September, Stokols said the app’s conversion rate from free to paid services is 48 percent. By comparison, Stokols told Reuters the conversion rate for Spotify is only around 12 percent.
The company’s success has certainly caught the eye of U.S. wireless carriers, including Sprint, which was reportedly in talks to purchase FreedomPop back in 2014. It doesn’t appear carrier ardor for FreedomPop’s technology has waned, either.
Stokols said he recently presented to 18 global telecommunications companies in Silicon Valley. The theme of the meeting, he said, was “how are we going to work together?”