Ting, The 'Less Evil' Wireless Carrier

This is less innovative and more a desperate act by sprint to stay in business. Cutting revenue on high expense wireless is like drinking saltwater to stay hydrated.

Something more financially sound carriers like ATT and Verizon would have no interest in.

This isn't a Sprint venture - it's another company (TUCOWS - remember them?) leasing their network.

AT&T and Verizon have no interest in it because their investors would never allow a competing service to be on the same lines as them, with that competing service undercutting everything the carrier has done over the last 5 years to make sure everyone has everything they dont need, and that they can fee you to death and there is nothing you can do about it.

Both AT&T and Verizon have multiple MVNO's using their networks as well.

But both Ma Bell and Big Red keep their MVNOs locked down to sub-par offerings, especially on the data side...getting them lots of customers who would never pay for their expensive [contract] services otherwise.

not really true. PagePlus is one of the most active and valuable MNVOs on the VZW network. They have a HUGE amount of customers and go through a TON of minutes. There is NO other MVNO that is offering 45.95 per month unlimited text and talk on the VZW Network; NOT even VZW is offering that.

Hence why I said data, not voice minutes. And Verizon does offer a $50 unlimited everything (including web-for dumbphones) package.

PagePlus (which uses the Verizon network) now offers this:

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Talk n Text 1200---Monthly Plan

1,200 Voice Minutes
3,000 Text/MMS Messages
100 MB Data

for $29.95/mo.

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I wouldn't go directly through the company though---use a good dealer like Kitty Wireless.

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Page Plus also offers a $ 55 plan with Unlimited Talk, Unlimited Text/Picture Messages, 500 MB of Data.

I'm aware of PagePlus' product offerings, including their latest price drops. Still, they are a sub-par offering compared to the contract deals - as intended. Unlimited talk and text (or essentially unlimited) is a standard plan for any carrier now. It's DATA where they stick it to you. PagePlus' overage rates beyond the package data provided are insane...

Not saying PagePlus is bad - I have a line with them in fact. My response was to the point that Verizon and the others are keeping their MVNO offerings sub-par to avoid cannibalizing their cash cow, which always has been - and remains - the postpaid customer locked in to a contract.

+1

Let's see this same model on a Verizon MVNO, then we'll talk....

There are plenty of cheap pay-to-go MVNOs that have true "by the minute" billing, Page Plus on Verizon network, or PlatinumTel on Sprint. Both of those are very cheap and in theory better than "bucket plans" because you get billed by what you actually use down to the minute/text/megabyte of data instead of buckets. The problem with Page Plus is that their data is very expensive, the problem with PlatinumTel is that you cannot Bring Your Own Device.

The success of this new service will be mostly determined by the 1) plan prices, obviously and 2) BYOD policy. If both of these are favorable, price comparable to PlatinumTel and BYOD is available, then this is going to be a real winner, otherwise it's going to be just another MVNO.

Bottom line is, this story will need a follow up when details are actually available.

I want a plan similar to t-mobile et. al. where you purchase $x of credit, and it has a 90 day - 1 year expiration, which can be renewed by topping off.

They have this for voice, I want this for data.

Sell me 2GB of data and let me use it over the next 90-365 days. I don't use enough data to require 2GB every month on a revolving basis.

AT&T offers this on GoPhone, at $25 per 500MB block. You can have up to 1.5GB on hand and it costs just $5 to keep it active every 30 days (rollover). Still expensive compared to postpaid offerings but much better than some others.

Sweet, now just make that at least 60-90 days with the same $5 top off and we have a deal!

Would be nice, but compared to what others offer in the prepaid space I'm not complaining about $5 to keep the data bucket rolled over each month.

You have to understand they [the monopolies] are not going to allow their core business cash cow to be neutered by an MVNO. Contract, postpaid service is still the vast, vast majority of their business. Hence why PagePlus has horrific data rates, for example. Verizon dictates that.

Consumer reports praised it for being a great plan that gave consumers affordable service, so of course Sprint killed it 1 year later so they could get the sweet juicy overages

The fair and flexible plan. I still have it for a couple of lines on my account. Unfortunately I can't use it for my own line because smart phones require "everything data" plans now.

That's one of the four reasons I don't have a not-so-smart phone. My wife and I have a voice plan that is more than enough for our combined needs. If Sprint would simply allow me to add data to one line, one obstacle to my having a phone with data would be removed.

Oh well... I save money, this way, so it's all good

Jim

The fact that none of the second tier carriers in my area want to allow me to bring my own device is a real problem.

Being forced to use the equivalent of several year old technology (the best phone I've seen for a boost/virgin/metropcs/whatever carrier was still not as good as an almost two year old HTC Evo 4g) because these companies will only allow their own phones on their network instead of provisioning any phone a customer brings is crap.

I'd much rather pay full price for a bleeding edge android phone and use it on a ~$30/month carrier since I hardly use any voice minutes, but I don't know of any carriers in my area that can help me make it happen.

T-Mobile just introduced $30 prepaid plan, you get 100 minutes and unlimited text data. Should be BYOD as well. I'm sure T-Mobile has good coverage in FL, so your wish is actually possible.

Or if you want unlimited minutes SimpleMobile (who is a T-Mobile reseller) has BYOD and unlimited everything for $40 a month, although as with any MVNO you do not have roaming.

Say what you want, but last couple of years have been a blessing for prepaid/MVNO crowd like me.

Do you have a link?

Edit: Is this what you're talking about? »prepaid-phones.t-mobile. ··· 4g-plans

Yes thats it. There was a news article on DSLR about it as well.
$30 100 minutes, Unlimited Text, and 5GB high speed data.
$0.10/min after 100 mins

The sprint HTC EVO can work on Boost, minus the 4G part. But if you get a Clearwire 4G account (let's say for your home internet service) the EVO can be made to work on Clearwire thus giving you 4G.
Google it, but this solution takes a lot of work to hack the phone, and with questionable reliability for minimal dollar saved. And not to mention some gray area regarding phone hacking....

On their web site I can't find anything that says what tiers they have and what it costs. Until that is available, you can't really evaluate if this service will be worth it or not.

Wasn't that how Sprint's Free and Clear plans used to work?
If you went beyond included minutes, you'd be bumped to next plan (essentially "buying" a block of 100 minutes for whatever was the cost, rather than having extraordinary 45c x each extra minute)

It was called "Fair and Flexible", and yes, Sprint was the first to reverse course on punitive overage rates, not that they would ever get credit for doing so here.

Ah yeah. It's been a while
Well, I suppose the final result will be the same
(heck, there were times when first incoming minute was free, and incoming texts were free too)

So Karl, let me get this right:

Charging full price for phones, and charging in proportion to use, is now, "less evil" ?

You do realize it involves much more than just upfront costs. People see, oooo $199 device subsidized price instead of $600 full price. But they end up paying much more over the 24 months.

Let me give you an example, say you talk 650 minutes a month (450 regular, 200 n/w mins), send 1000 texts, and use 1GB of data.

On AT&T, you will be paying $40 for voice, $20 for texts, and $25 for data, a total of $85/mo, not including taxes/fees and a $36 activation fee. Lets say your employer gives you a 15-20% discount on AT&T, that basically covers taxes/fees and activation over the 24 months.
You paid $199 + tax for an smartphone, lets say $250 for the device with taxes.
So $85*24+$250 = $2290 for 24 months of service

On T-Mobile Prepaid, you pay $60/mo for Unlimited Talk, Text, and 1GB of high speed then slowed unlimited data. You buy an smartphone on eBay for $600 (brand new). This is a high estimate, you can definitely get Androids and iPhones for less, brand new too.
So $600+$60*24 = $2040 for 24 months of service

On H20 Wireless, an AT&T MVNO, you can get Unlimited Talk, Text, and 2GB for $60/mo. Same pricing as T-Mobile Prepaid.

Lets say you need 300 minutes or less a month but use 3GB of data a month, theres T-Mobile's $30 100 mins ($0.10/min after), Unlimited Text, and 5GB high speed data (then throttled unlimited). If you use 300 minutes, the plan rises to $50.
So $600+$50*24 = $1800 for 25 months of service.

Clearly, you can pay more upfront and less overall.

good eye, but these two networks are still different and at&t has definitely a lot more coverage, at least native. With T-Mobile if you move anywhere, you may need to terminate service because you are no longer under t-mobiles native coverage. personally I do not see $250 a year too much of difference. Unless you get a cheaper phone (used, new 1 year old or junk cheapo) or sign 2 year contract that saves you more, a mere $20 a month savings doesn't justify cheaper quality service t-mobile has to deal with (such as no LTE, delayed 3g, no 850Mhz coverage, etc).

The ting service is pretty good and covers all areas that Sprint has agreements with (no roaming fees). The phone choices are not great yet but they are working on it. I have had no issues at all with the service and the staff are great when you call. They work very hard to make sure you are happy. I had issues porting my number from the website (since been fixed) and they work to resolve the issue and called me back. I also had a question that was totally unrelated to their service and the agent took the time to Google the answer and email me the info. As part of the limited beta I don't think I can give out any real details at this point.

Nice breakdown of equipment subsidies above. If you want an idea of ting pricing look here.

»ting.com/calculator/

It doesn't give pricing but you can put the above scenarios in there to see where it falls. Not included in the calculator is the cost of the device which you must but up-front. Prices are better than the retail price from company stores but higher than the subsidized price from stores. I am trying to give as much info as I can without giving info that I am not supposed to.

Search youtube for ting mobile pricing.