Ting: Tucows' Venture into the MVNO Business

**Conan Edogawa** · 08-11-2011, 08:34 PM

Powered by Sprint and coming later this year. Not much information other than the usual hype.

http://ting.com/

**smtelegadis** · 08-12-2011, 11:41 AM

Hopefully this will be the first of many alternatives for Cellular Service from alternate providers. I like the fact that there is a fairly well established organization behind the venture. I signed up and look forward to hear what is to come from there.

**HF305** · 08-12-2011, 01:03 PM

They're sort of hinting it's going to be pure PAYGO, "buy just what you need" on talk text and data. It could work if the price is right.

**Piqutchi** · 08-12-2011, 11:03 PM

Originally Posted by HF305

They're sort of hinting it's going to be pure PAYGO, "buy just what you need" on talk text and data. It could work if the price is right.

If that's the case (and if the paygo data was not just about a kilobyte a minute), then this would be awesome...Especially if Ting offers 4G, too!

**Relztrah** · 08-14-2011, 08:31 PM

Very interesting, but no mention of BYOD, which is a big minus. I would try out the service if I could activate my old LG LX160 that was a Sprint postpaid.

**silentjudge** · 12-06-2011, 06:21 PM

Whats interesting is I asked one of their senior guys and he told me they offer Full Sprint Postpaid coverage:

The map you see on the site is what we provide to Ting customers.
That includes Sprint and roaming for voice and text and Sprint's network for data.

I got in the beta so I can see their coverage map and it is NOT the prepaid coverage map. His wording though makes it sound like theres only roaming for Text/Calls and native Sprint only for data.

**Endeavor** · 12-06-2011, 07:51 PM

While they aren't directly publishing pricing, you can get a general sense of the pricing by going to the "how much can you save" section of their web-site and entering your estimated usage.

I tested the site with a bunch of different figures and it appears to be very reasonable, with pricing based upon bands.

$6.00 for a dial tone. $3.00 more for 1 to 100 minutes. $6.00 more for 101 to 500 minutes. $6.00 more for 501 to 1000 minutes. Then $17.00 more for 1,000 to 2,000 minutes. $17.00 more than that for 2,000 to 3,000 minutes. Then $.02 per minute above 3,000 minutes.

I didn't fiddle as much with text and data, but I did note that the first band of texts adds $3.00. I didn't figure out how high it goes..

**silentjudge** · 12-06-2011, 07:52 PM

Heres their "plans":
http://i.imgur.com/ntxfz.png

Phones:
http://i.imgur.com/eSV6q.png
They said a Photon 4G is coming in a month or so

**Endeavor** · 12-06-2011, 07:58 PM

Nice. I've asked to join their beta. Can you get me in?

**silentjudge** · 12-06-2011, 08:37 PM

Originally Posted by EndeavorOR

Nice. I've asked to join their beta. Can you get me in?

I dont have the ability to invite people unfortunately. They are still sending out invites everyday, so I imagine you can get in pretty soon.

Sent from my Atrix 4G

**HF305** · 12-07-2011, 08:42 AM

The most interesting part is at the bottom-- It can be a family plan. You can add up to 5 more lines at $6.00 each, the pool of talk text and data will be shared. No M2M though so calling or texting among family members would still cost on both phones taking double the minutes out of the pool.

Data overage is $22.50 per GB, cool that it's PAYGO data and you are free to buy as much as you want, but the rate should be closer to $10.00 per GB especially considering it's Sprint network.

Unlike most prepaid, taxes are not included in the listed price and would vary by locality.

**Endeavor** · 12-07-2011, 10:49 AM

I also communicated with a top Ting person who advised that voice allows roaming on all Sprint's roaming partners, but data is strictly Sprint.

The thing that I really like about this company is that they've essentially re-created Sprint's Fair and Flexible Plan, only where fairer pricing. This will definitely not appeal to people who want "unlimited," but then, I don't know that anyone who advertises "unlimited" is actually honoring that anyway...

**billm261** · 12-07-2011, 12:59 PM

Judging by the website, this would cost me more than Sprint postpaid.

Interesting however is that it may be cheaper than my VM and Sprint line combined but only about 8.00 a month.

**Conan Edogawa** · 12-07-2011, 01:10 PM

Well, it looks like this service's niche is to cater to those who think they are currently overpaying for cell service & know almost exactly how much they regularly use. Instead of fixed prepaid monthly packages, you pick one from row A, row B, etc.. As usual, it just depends on whether this is a good deal or not.

Anyway if somebody pays $600 or whatever for a 4g Photon, will they get 4g speeds on Ting?

**pitflyer** · 12-07-2011, 08:40 PM

I am in the Ting beta but declined to actually start service since it didn't work for my usage patterns. However, the big advantage they offer is the sliding scale shown applies every month - if you choose more than you need, you get a refund. If you choose less, they just charge you the difference between what you picked and the level you use.

Their phone prices are a bit more expensive than their counterparts on prepaid (for example they offer an Optimus S) and you can't reuse Sprint phones or other phones, so you need to buy one of there's to start service, and their cheapest flip is like $40. They also pride themselves on customer service, which seems pretty good as far as I've talked to them in a pre-sales type situation.

Overall a decent option for those that have usage that's somewhere in between PAYGO and the unlimited plans available on the other prepaid carriers.