Ting, The 'Less Evil' Wireless Carrier → Did Pigs Just Fly?

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).