US-based MVNO FreedomPop has informed Spanish customers that it will be ceasing its activities and “permanently discontinuing services” by the end of December just over two years after launching in the country, reports Movilonia. Catalan MVNO Parlem has agreed to take over its customer portfolio starting on 29 December and will continue to provide services via Masmovil’s Yoigo network. In the note, FreedomPop said customers simply have to accept the terms and conditions of Yoigo and Parlem before that deadline and will be offered a new plan more adjusted to their profile.
FreedomPop was the only Spanish operator to offer a basic free plan that included 100 minutes of calls, 200MB of data and 300 SMS. However, due to what the operator describes as “increasing fraud and abuse” that so-called ‘freemium’ plan was replaced earlier this year by the ‘Esencial’ tariff with another 100MB of data (300MB in total) for EUR 2.99 a month. It also initially offered data-free WhatsApp use but phased out that feature once it launched 4G services in August 2017.
The news comes after two other supermarket MVNO services – Carrefour Movil and Eroski Movil – ceased operations in the past year due to their inability to offer customers convergent fibre, mobile and television services in a market increasingly dominated by multi-play plans.
