It was confirmed late last year that Verizon is going to come out with a sponsored data program of its own, AT&T already launched one back in 2014, with Verizon boasting that the capabilities it has built allow it to break down any byte that’s beamed across its network and have all or a portion of it sponsored. Big Red formally launched its sponsored data service called FreeBee Data today in beta.
FreeBee Data has two service models. Under the FreeBee Data 360 model content providers can sign up to provide users with some or all of their mobile content, regardless of whether it’s in an app or on a mobile website, free without having it count against the user’s data allowance. It’s billed to content providers under a per gigabyte pricing model.
The FreeBee Data model lets content providers sponsor specific consumer actions on a per-click basis, free of any charge to the user, and this can include content like app downloads, audio streaming and mobile video clips. For example, an app developer can sign up for FreeBee Data with Verizon and make it free for Big Red subscribers to download its app on mobile data.
FreeBee Data 360 is commercially available in beta starting today, content providers can sign up to sponsor data for all of its post-paid customers. Trial for FreeBee Data will begin on January 25th, some of the brands that will take part in that trial include AOL, Hearst Magazines and GAMEDAY, and they will sponsor content for about 1,000 test subscribers. This particular model will be commercially launched later this year.