FreedomPop gears up for its free mobile service with $5M in funding

After announcing its plan to launch completely free cellular plans, FreedomPop has scored another $5 million from existing investors DCM Capital and Mangrove Capital.

The Los Angeles-based company started out offering free mobile data service via an iPod Touch case and mobile hotspots, and it also recently announced a home router with free mobile data. But in the end, everything FreedomPop has done has been leading up to the launch of completely free cellular plans.

“Our end game was supposed to be the starting point,” FreedomPop chief executive Stephen Stokols told us a month ago when it announce the free mobile plan news. “This is a full-on replacement for the carrier,” he added.

FreedomPop plans to launch the free mobile service later this summer. You’ll be able to get 500MBs of free 4G data, 200 free anytime minutes, and unlimited texting. Additional data and minutes, naturally, will be available at a small fee. You’ll also be able to call other FreedomPop users for free.

The news brings FreedomPop’s total funding to $16 million. The company claims that its valuation has also doubled (though it hasn’t yet revealed what that figure is). FreedomPop will use the additional funding towards building up the free mobile plans, as well as supporting the company’s existing users.