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Of the sea of MVNO’s piggy backing on the Big 4’s networks, Ting presented an interesting concept: pay only for what you use in a given month. Of course, its biggest shortcoming was that it operated on Sprint’s network. Not exactly the easiest pill to swallow.
For those that were interested in giving Ting a shot but were turned off by the prospect of having to put up with Sprint, they’ve officially announced that their new GSM service is officially in open beta. Their GSM SIM cards — which operate on T-Mobile’s network — run about $9 and fit into a variety of devices using built-in SIM adapter.
Ting’s service charges you $6 for each connected device, and you pay only for the amount of minutes, text messages, and data you use in a given month. Here’s the pricing rates:
Keep in mind that while in the open beta, international roaming and long distance aren’t fully operational. Also, when bringing a T-Mobile phone over to Ting, the phone will need to be paid off first (but not unlocked). However, those looking to bring an AT&T device will need to make sure it’s been unlocked beforehand, something that shouldn’t pose too much of a problem given recent developments.
Anyone thinking about giving Ting a shot?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulkJTzY0fKU
I ordered a ting gsm card a few weeks ago, have yet to use it but I need an unlocked phone first. But I’m cautious about their limitations. I wrote up the big FYIs of their gsm coverage following their Hangouts chat a few weeks back: http://tmblr.co/ZtFexo1d4Rt1I
I’ll stick with my $30.00 Walmart T-Mobile plan.
Same here. It’s actually a much better plan.
Can you use tethering with the data allowance? If so it’s not too bad a deal!
Yes. Ting is a dumb pipe that provides minutes, texts, and data. They don’t care how you use it. Just don’t stream video to your computer cause you’ll owe a lot…
This would probably be cheaper for me. The issue is I use way to much data.
An interesting concept. But I still prefer my unlimited everything, same bill every month, and ultimately being a priority on the main network. You can’t put a price on not having to think or do anything with mundane things.
It could work as a secondary device or for people with limited use of their device.
The idea of this is tempting, but as I average anywhere from 20-90 GB per month (It can vary wildly, sometimes I’m more social than normal and am away from Wi-Fi more often, or else everyone is home and using Netflix which prompts me to go back to mobile data, etc.) so I think Ting could end up being more expensive for me than T-Mobile. Ha.
Ting isn’t really for heavy data users like you.
$30 for 2 GB or $30 for 5GB. Hmmm….
$36*
You forgot to add the device fee.
i like the concept, but i’d be paying a good bit more for what i have now if i went with them.
Just so I am clear, do you have to pick a column (S, L, XL, etc) and that’s what you can use under that? Or can you pick a column for each specific row like I might be in the S category for minutes since I never talk on the phone but maybe L for data?
Ditto.
My calls/texts/data fall into 3 different columns/categories. Would like some light on this as well.
You pay for what you use. The month starts and you owe $6/device, flat fee. When you send one text, you owe $3, until you send over 100 texts, then it bumps up to $5 until 1000 texts. Minutes and data are the same, but calculated separately. If you don’t use any texts you pay $0 for texts.
You just use as you like and at the end of the month you will simply pay based upon what you used. No need to guess your usage beforehand.
pick a catergory per row since you would not use say 4 devices on the L section. Most people would just use the 1 device. Ting has always been you pay what you use. Aka use a lot of data but no mins pay just for the data use and pay nothing or almost nothing for mins
the great you use per monthly on T mobile is network .
Sprint is not the problem. Here is a problem. Ting lists their data in megabytes. 1gig of data for 30 bucks a month will get you nowhere. Do yourself a favor and get you everything unlimited for 50 bucks a month and you will be ok. Ting needs to go away along with limited data.
Don’t support limited data. Unlimited or nothing.
That is why I’m with MetroPCS unlimited lte for $50 and where I live T-Mobile had done such a good job this past year in fixing the gaps I always am on lte except for a short speech on my commute between a couple Hills I drop down to hspa+ I think this plan needs to be the standard
HSPA+ is still better then 3g/edge/2g
Why? I love Ting, but I’m also frequently on Wifi. Home has Wifi. Work has WiFi. Gym has WiFi. Even my local bar has WiFi. I can go a whole month using only 200-300 MB, so why should I pay for unlimited? I need to be smart about data usage, sure, but when my bill for myself & my wife is closer to $60/month than $160/month (our old Verizon bill) it is completely worthwhile.
meh – based on my usage Ting at BEST matches the cost fo Republic Wireless ($40/mo) and at worst costs significantly more (every now and then i use more than 1GB in a month – hit 5GB one month). plus i’d lose the wifi coverage (my home and work are cellular deadzones for all carriers, but wifi calling works great).
for my money Ting just doesn’t look interesting at all.
for light-weight users I can see how Ting would be great through (e.g. you can’t get LTE with Republic for less than $40)
They’re charging $15 per GB, and the first GB (501-1000MB) is $20. That’s not a good deal at all. If you use at least 1 minute or message (which can happen accidentally) your minimum cost is $12. If we say you use 2GB of data like the “average” user, $29+12 = $41. 3GB, and you’re at $56. Ting is only somewhat good if you use less than 100 minutes, less than 100 messages, and less than 500MB of data. ($24/month)
Ting is pretty good. I’ve had a few months with stuff like 1025MB of data (between two phones) and they’ll go ahead and only charge me for 1000 MB. Same with minutes & texts.
In any case, my phone bill with Ting for two lines is regularly around $65 (including some taxes), and usually is L for minutes, M for texts, and jumps between the L & XL data buckets. I’m trying to get my wife to use Google Hangouts/Voice for calls on WiFi to reduce minutes, but it kind of sucks and drops a lot, so she doesn’t like it. Still not a big deal, since service is so cheap.
For comparison, my Verizon bill was around $160/month. I’ve saved a *lot* of money since switching, and apart from a few issues with rural service, I’m pretty happy. I’d love unlimited, but it’s not necessary for me, and I’m unwilling to pay for it.
Well summarized
Ting is best for low usage, especially with multiple lines each being low usage. For heavy usage, there’s better options.
What the article (Chris) didn’t mention is that the tiers are for the COMBINED usage of all your registered devices on Ting. So, the blocks of voice,text and data are shared amounts. This is where the savings occurs. For those like me that can use Wifi a lot, and don’t stream while out and about, keeping Data below a Gig on 4 devices would be a cinch. I have two lines and will add two more when Sprint adds some (rumored) rural coverage in an area that I visit often. Tethering is enabled at no extra cost. One drawback is that, generally, phones that are less than a year old since launch are not allowed. However, iPhone 6’s are just recently allowed.
Oh, and Ting roams on Verizon for voice and text. They are only restricted to native Sprint data.
I’ve been using Ting now for about 8 months. It was a bit of a change coming from an unlimited Verizon plan. But I adjusted fine and changed my way of thinking about data. I set everything to download on Wifi only, and only do server based media stuff while on Wifi, and downloaded my music to my phone instead of streaming it. I was surprised at how prevalent Wifi is. It is almost everywhere when you are in a city. Being on a limited plan like Ting also made me stop fiddling with my phone. On an unlimited plan I was always checking webpages and such. Now I only check stuff I need to check… emails, a few web pages here and there, and Hangouts. It was a nice change. Now my phone is a tool for me to use, not a distraction for my boredom. I think a lot of people are timid to try something like Ting because they are addicted to the internet and need it 24/7. If you can break that urge, you would be amazed at the amount of money you can save, and also learn how addicted you really are to the internet of things.
Itchy, I can’t agree with what you said any more! I am sick of friends and coworkers that can’t go a few minutes without going to their phones. It is a tool, not a crutch.
http://youtheasyjob.com/?userid=32198
Cost per gigabyte is still too high. I get unlimited talk/text and 10GB data on Simple Mobile for $60, on Ting it would cost 6+18+5+145 = $172 to get what I use.