Budget MVNO FreedomPop aims to turn a profit in the US later this year, with the company turning its attentions towards monetising its unusual business model.

The company, which last year also launched in the UK, claims to offer free mobile services to customers, and only makes money once subscribers purchase add-ons to boost tariffs.

Speaking to Telecompaper, FreedomPop International president, Nicholas Constantinopoulos, said the company was working hard on conversion, with 50 per cent of customers in the US beginning to fork out for paid services, generating ARPU of approximately $15.

The UK, where the company offered 200 minutes, 200 SMS and 200MB of free data per month upon launch, has a 40 per cent conversion rate, with a 1GB package costing £8.99 a month.

The company is now targeting further international expansion after raising an additional $50 million in funding in January, although its backer is still not disclosed.

At the same time, the company also unveiled data hotspot, covering 24 countries in Europe, and the US.

However, Constantinopoulos said that Europe is not high on the list of FreedomPop’s expansion plans at the moment.

He said the launch in smaller countries will occur in a clustered fashion, with the company placing an emphasis on bigger markets right now.

He did however confirm talks with European players, and revealed an agreement with Belgium’s Telenet, the owner of Base, with a launch in Netherlands and Belgium expected at “a later stage”.