FreedomPop launches its smartphone VoIP service, giving away 200 minutes each month

Mobile broadband provider FreedomPop has officially become a full-fledged mobile operator. It started selling its first smartphone, the HTC Evo Design, and began offering its first voice and messaging communications services following its usual freemium model: the first 200 minutes, 500 texts and 500 MBs of data each month are free – anything more you pay for.

Though a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), FreedomPop isn’t following the usual model of reselling another network’s traditional voice and messaging service. It’s buying bulk 3G and 4G data from Sprint and offering its own VoIP-based communications services over the top. TextNow beat FreedomPop to market with a smartphone and VoIP service in August, but the two MVNOs are in rare company. They’re the first all-IP mobile carriers in the US.