Lowering your internet bills is a great way to save money when cutting back on your monthly expenditure. How can you do it? By looking for internet sources that can offer you a connection at no cost.
Although service providers distribute internet services to the majority of Americans, many still don’t subscribe to broadband due to the high costs involved. This makes them miss out on a lot of opportunities online.
However, there are some government programs that offer low-income consumers financial assistance to pay for their internet bills. Examples include the Affordable Connectivity Program and Lifeline. Unfortunately, these programs only provide free internet to people who meet specific prerequisites that have been put in place.
Luckily, there are other means you can use if you want to know how to get unlimited internet for free but don’t meet these guidelines. All the methods mentioned here are legal and will enable you to eliminate internet bills completely. Let’s dive in.
Free Unlimited Internet from Discount Service Providers
Some companies provide free internet through their low-tier, which usually have limited bandwidth or speed. Below are some examples:
1. FreedomPop
FreedomPop is an internet service provider headquartered in Los Angeles, California. Their main aim is to make the internet accessible to everyone. They are one of the few providers with data, text, and voice plans that are entirely free.
How do you get free unlimited internet from FreedomPop? You should head to their site and set up an account. After that, FreedomPop will require you to pay a small deposit using your debit or credit card so they can offer you a portable hotspot device.
The company will ship the portable Wi-Fi hotspot to you in just a few days. The gadget arrives with as much as 10GB which you can use during the first month. Additionally, FreedomPop will offer you 500MB monthly at no cost for the other months.
Although FreedomPop has a 4G network, they can only offer relatively low speeds in their free data plan. Consequently, it won’t be a suitable choice for heavy internet usage. However, you can upgrade to a better plan anytime you like.
You can return the portable hotspot when you stop using FreedomPop services, and they will return your deposit fee.
2. NetZero
This famous landline and internet service provider has been around since 1998. Unlike FreedomPop or Juno, they only provide access to their internet once you download and install their software.
NetZero’s free services are only available to people with a landline phone and a computer with a modem port. If yours lacks one, you can buy an adapter that can enable you to connect the modem.
Their free plan awards you a maximum of 10 hours of internet monthly. The only downside is that their software is packed with ads. Furthermore, their internet speeds do not match those of other service providers, making it favorable for people who browse lightly or for use during emergencies.
If you feel the free plan is insufficient, NetZero also provides paid plans offering more bandwidth. For instance, you can pay $27 monthly for their 1GB plan or $79 monthly for their 8GB plan.
3. Juno
Juno is very similar to NetZero because they are different branches of the same organization. Like NetZero, you must have a landline connection to enjoy 10 hours of free internet monthly. This falls under their freemium internet plan.
The internet speeds offered by Juno may not be enough to game online or stream videos. However, if you want to perform basic operations like checking your email or browsing through simple sites, then it will do.
You can supplement the free plan with other packages to get higher internet speeds. The best part is that you do not have to sign any contracts. This means that you will be free to cancel your subscription when you deem it necessary. Ensure you’re satisfied with their service before upgrading to a paid plan.
Free Unlimited Internet for School Students
The government is collaborating with various private institutions to ensure that students from low-income families do not miss out on having a stable internet connection. It does this to stop the digital divide, while private institutions do it for charity.
Examples of projects addressing the digital gap include Kajeet SmartSpot, Computers for learning, and Google’s Rolling Study Halls Program. The latter provides tools such as mobile WiFi routers and free data plans to enable learning to continue past school hours in buses.
Plans are underway to make the Rolling Study Halls program more encompassing to offer internet connection to community members who don’t have access. Some school districts collaborate with like-minded providers to provide students with mobile hotspots and digital devices such as computers to help them with their studies.
Free Unlimited Internet from Government Assistance Programs
A Few government assistance programs provide free unlimited internet to consumers in the country. These programs are administered by the USAC (Universal Service Administrative Company) and require every household to satisfy specific prerequisites before they can be considered eligible. They include:
1. Affordable Connectivity Program
This program was established to allow low-income people to access high-speed internet at a cheaper cost or for free. It does this by providing monthly discounts that help to partially or wholly settle internet bills.
Currently, the ACP allocates $30 monthly for qualified people and $75 for people who live on Tribal lands but still qualify for the program. This discount is effectively applied to the internet bill of participating internet service providers such as:
- Allo Communications
- AT&T
- Altice USA
- Spectrum
- Starry
- IdeaTek
- MLGC
- Frontier
- Brezeline
- Mediacom
- Vexus Fiber
- Vermont Telephone Company
- Verizon Fios
- Jackson Energy Authority
- Comcast
- AltaFiber
- Cox Communications
- Comporium
- Wow, Internet, Cable, and TV
The ACP will enable you to get free unlimited internet only if you meet any of the following guiding criteria mentioned below:
- Have an income less than 200% of the Poverty Threshold set by the Federal Government.
- If you have subscribed to one of the following government benefits programs mentioned below:
- Supplemental Security Income/SSI
- Federal Public Housing Assistance
- Veterans’ Pension or Survivor Benefits
- Women, Infants, and Children
- Medicaid
- Federal Pell Grant
- Food Distribution on India Reservations
- Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance
- Tribal Head Start
- Tribal TANF
- Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
You can apply for free internet through this program by going to the official ACP page, filling out an application form, calling a participating service provider, and picking an internet plan. Once you’ve chosen a plan and gotten in touch with the service provider, the discount will be applied.
2. Lifeline
Lifeline is a support program funded by the Federal Government and assists low-income households in catering to their telecommunication and internet bills. Like the ACP, this program requires you to be eligible first before you can benefit.
All applicants should be within the Poverty Threshold specified by the Federal Government (their annual earnings should not surpass 135% of the Poverty Guidelines). Secondly, they should be active members of government support programs.
Some examples of programs include Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Supplemental Security Income, Federal Public Housing Assistance, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and Veterans Pension and Survivors Benefit.
Applicants who qualify for the program can get as much as $9.95 taken off their monthly internet bills. The only restriction of the Lifeline is that only one member of your household can be a beneficiary. Additionally, you can only use it to settle one of two bills: internet or phone bills.
Free Unlimited Internet from Public Wi-Fi
Nowadays, there are many places where Public Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed. You can take advantage of any of these places to get free unlimited internet. Use the following means to help you identify and connect to these hotspots.
1. Facebook App
Facebook has a tool known as Facebook Wi-Fi, enabling you to connect to hotspots for various businesses using your mobile device. This tool also helps you to locate public hotspots within your vicinity. Just follow this procedure to get the best out of it.
- Launch Facebook on your mobile device.
- Click on the main menu icon at the top of the page
- Look for “Find Wi-Fi” on a drop-down list that will be displayed. This will typically be located in the ‘explore’ section for iOS phones and “Apps” then “All” for Android phones.
- Press “Enable Find Wi-Fi” and allow the app to use your location data.
2. InstaBridge
Instabridge is an app you can download on Android or iOS phones for free. It gives you access to a database of Wi-Fi hotspots all over the country and their passwords. Initially, the app was meant to help friends and family share their network usernames and passwords.
Nowadays, it serves as a database of network credentials for various purposes, e.g., for people who would like to share their private network with others or businesses that want their customers to connect quickly.
The InstaBridge app works by listing all the Wi-Fi hotspots within your vicinity. To top it off, it shows how strong and far they are from where you are. Instabridge ignores Wi-Fi networks that perform below par and gives you the best options available.
You don’t have to ask for login credentials if you have installed the InstaBridge app, as it will automatically connect. This is possible only if the owner shared their credentials on the app earlier. In simple terms, InstaBridge is a huge repository of Wi-Fi passwords.
3. WiFiMap
WiFiMap works in the same way as InstaBridge. It gives you access to a list of locations with free unlimited internet and the login credentials for each one. WiFiMap has several Wi-Fi hotspot locations distributed all over the globe.
You cannot enjoy the services of this tool without downloading it on your phone first. Alternatively, you can use the online version, which doesn’t require downloading software. WiFiMap allows you to search for the hotspot areas nearest to you.
Using Your Phone as a Hotspot
Most smartphones come with a hotspot feature which you can use to create Wi-Fi and connect your other devices. You can subscribe to an unlimited data plan from your service provider instead of settling expensive internet service bills every month.
Most service providers include unlimited hotspot connectivity in their data packages. If you have a good phone, you can connect multiple devices as ago without the internet performance being affected too much.
Some service providers put a data cap on their unlimited data plans, although they don’t cut off your connection. Instead, they throttle your speed until you renew your plan. However, if you don’t use a lot of data every month, you won’t even experience this.
Final Remarks
Hopefully, this article has enabled you to know how to get unlimited internet for free if you did not know how to. Just pick one of the methods outlined, and you will start cutting down on your internet expenses as soon as possible.
However, it would be best to be extremely cautious when searching for new ways to get free unlimited internet. This is because many fictitious sites and fraudsters online will try to steal from you.