Summary

Get a cheap ~$15 SIM card that gives you free 500MB/month forever that you can use around the world!

Details

Recently took a cruise in Scandinavia and roaming on a Canadian Carrier's plan didn't seem like a good deal.

cruise-ports

FreedomPop Global SIM
  • One time fee to buy/ship the SIM card
  • Up to 500MB/month for FREE
  • Coverage: freedompop
  • Up to 5 SIMs per account but need to be ordered individually
  • Shipping takes 2-3 weeks
Ordering your SIM (from Canada)
  1. Choose one of the below offers (I would choose the Voice SIM for cheap shipping forwarding)
  1. Find a friend in the US or use a reshipping service like http://shipto.com
  2. When ordering with a Canadian credit card, it will most likely just check against your address and ZIP/Postal Code. For the postal code, enter the 3 digits of your postal code and add two 0's to the end
  • e.g. A1B2C3 will become 12300
  1. Wait patiently for the SIM to arrive (should take about 2-3 weeks)
Making it Free (can be done once order is complete but better to do it after it ships)
  1. Login to the freedompop website
  2. Deactivate the Plan
    a. Click on Account --> Plans --> Details and Plan Management --> "To downgrade, click here"
  3. Deactivate Trial Service
    a. Click on Account --> Services --> View Details --> "To deactivate, click here"
  4. Disable Automatic Top-up (for $5 credit/charge)
    a. Click on Billing --> Billing Settings --> Automatic Top-Up EDIT --> Disable
Adding Friends to Get a Total of 500MB/month
  1. Each month you get 200MB/month free, but you can get an additional 300MB for a total of 500MB/month free forever
  2. Visit slickdeals and follow the instructions: http://slickdeals.net/f/5276432-freedompop-friends
Adding Rollover Data for $2USD/month
  1. This is usually $4/month, but if you login, then change the URL to https://www.freedompop.com/acct_service.htm?offerSku=OFFER-ROLL-07, then it will be $2/month
  2. Click on My Account --> Services --> FreedomPop Data Rollover --> Change the URL to the above, or just click on the above --> Activate
  3. Now each month, up to 500MB of data will be rolled over, up to a total of 20GB.
Reactivate Credit (Monthly)
  1. If you removed the Auto Top Up feature, then you would've made a one time payment of $5
  2. This credit seems to expire every month, so login to "reactivate" it (it's free)
  3. Billing --> Overview --> Credit Balance --> Reactivate Credit
Experience
  • The SIM Card worked in most of the cities it claimed it would work in
  • Devices tested:
    • Google Nexus 6P
    • Apple iPhone 6 Unlocked (Bell Canada)
Country City Supported Worked
USA New Jersey
Sweden Stockholm
Finland Helsinki
Russia
Estonia
Germany Warnermunde
Germany Berlin
Denmark Copenhagen
Netherlands Amsterdam
Downloading the app

All the apps will give you usage data.

  1. Making Calls and Messaging:
  1. Managing your Account:

  1. The Messaging App will try to take over calling and messaging. It is a good idea to uninstall the app once you stop using the SIM Card ↩︎