I’ve written about my aunt before. I’d love to get her on the Internet, but she’s reluctant to sign up for a monthly service that involves installing a blinking box that requires complicated set up, troubleshooting her home phone system, or signing an expensive cellular data contract. So when I visit the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas I always keep an eye out for possible solutions.
Freedom Pop, exhibiting this week at a press event called Digital Experience, may have one. The $99 purchase price of its instant wireless network (just plug in to a power source to operate) includes 500 megabytes of data per month, to be provided by Sprint, free for life. Additional data charges can be deducted from an account at $10 per gigabyte, or heavy users can pay $60 per month for a 10-gigabyte plan.
The company sells a case for the iPod Touch for the same price, and includes software that makes it easier to call and text on the device. My teenage son, who we’ve told won’t be getting an iPhone until he can pay for the data plan himself, is interested in this one.
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Tekla S. Perry is a senior editor at IEEE Spectrum. Based in Palo Alto, Calif., she's been covering the people, companies, and technology that make Silicon Valley a special place for more than 40 years. An IEEE member, she holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.
