Sprint is branching out again -- with a "no contract plan" - enter Ting.
Buy a device (including 4G phones), choose the individual features (minutes, sms, data) of the service you want.
You choose your plans for minutes, messages and megabytes. If you go over on any of them, we will reconcile in the next pay period so that you pay for what you actually used (without penalty). Likewise, if you go under on any of them, we will credit you in the next pay period so that you pay for what you actually used. Again, we will credit you.
For those wanting a higher end phone on a no contract plan.
The cost for data is on the high side at $42 for 2gig (other data plans available).
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I saw this today, and it's a very interesting model. The costs are very reasonable, and everything is shared, which is the big deal. The biggest shocker that's buried in there is that their Canadian pricing is reasonable, it's $.15/min and free for texting, although the data is $.50/MB, which is bad, but not as bad as AT&T's astronomical $19/MB.
Yes, the data is theoretically expensive per unit volume. However, for a family who doesn't stream a lot of media, and just uses apps and web, and can wifi offload at home, the pricing is fantastic. You can add as many lines as you want to the 3GB for $60, but with Verizon, having 5 lines with data is a minimum of $100/mo, even with minimal data usage (300MB/line).
The coverage for voice and text is also excellent, since they roam on Verizon. After Network Vision, this might be a compelling plan. The up-front costs of the phone are actually hugely offset by the savings. The only huge caveat is that you won't have data in many areas while traveling, since they do not offer data coverage on Verizon CDMA. It would be nice if they could at least get 1x roaming on Verizon, even if for a little extra fee.
One disappointing thing is that it appears that the Photon and Detail do not support SMR, but that the Samsung Conquer does.
I usually support government regulation, but It is unfortunate that the government over-regulated and killed the AT&T/ T-Mobile Merger The best explanation of the pricing nutiness in the industry. Why Sprint and T-Mo will always suck.
The only way to end the pricing insanity is to eliminate contracts and subsidies.
I want Wifi calling on AT&T. If you text while driving, you're an idiot. End of story.
Dear goodness, look at those phones and those prices. Maybe that's while Motorola unveiled the Photon and the Triumph at the same time. While looking appeizting (sic), are those prices really worthwhile?
Talk is (relatively) cheap. Text is kinda excessive when you realize how little it costs a cell phone network to provide those services, but it's bearable. Data is also below par (you know, how when you get below par on a golf course it's a good thing)... but think about it now, a 3GB of data for a single phone is $66/month -- and that's after you foot the cost of a pretty high-priced postpaid phone.
There are quite a few services that offer a lot more unlimited for those prices. There also appears to be no data roaming... how sad.... so Ting might be comparable to VM, Boost, Net10, and StraightTalk... with higher prices all-around.
Finally allowing tethering/hotspotting/etc at least sounds like it's going in the right direction. (You own the device and have paid for an allotted amount of data, though, so it's not exactly surprising.) But okay, besides that? It seems to be much ado about nothing.
I am getting 2.5GB of 3G data a month, with three hundred voice minutes, for $25 a month with Virgin Mobile. This chart tells me Ting cannot beat that price.
Dear goodness, look at those phones and those prices. Maybe that's while Motorola unveiled the Photon and the Triumph at the same time. While looking appeizting (sic), are those prices really worthwhile?
Talk is (relatively) cheap. Text is kinda excessive when you realize how little it costs a cell phone network to provide those services, but it's bearable. Data is also below par (you know, how when you get below par on a golf course it's a good thing)... but think about it now, a 3GB of data for a single phone is $66/month -- and that's after you foot the cost of a pretty high-priced postpaid phone.
There are quite a few services that offer a lot more unlimited for those prices. There also appears to be no data roaming... how sad.... so Ting might be comparable to VM, Boost, Net10, and StraightTalk... with higher prices all-around.
Finally allowing tethering/hotspotting/etc at least sounds like it's going in the right direction. (You own the device and have paid for an allotted amount of data, though, so it's not exactly surprising.) But okay, besides that? It seems to be much ado about nothing.
I am getting 2.5GB of 3G data a month, with three hundred voice minutes, for $25 a month with Virgin Mobile. This chart tells me Ting cannot beat that price.
You seem to be overlooking quite a bit, but for you staying with VM is the thing to do. I have VM also with a V and use about 100 minutes a month and 200-300 MBs, no texts. I don't get my push mail as I should and data is not dependable, not that Thing will be better.
They also have rollover~ and 4G WIMAX (for now) and with me being in a well covered WIMAX area it's a no-brainier!
Roaming on Verizon, if true, is HUGE, even if it doesn't include data roaming.
The Sprint MVNOs I've encountered don't roam. (Kroger i-wireless, VM, Boost, etc.)
The lack of roaming is what kept us from jumping to cheaper plans that more closely matched our actual usage.
We're on a grandfathered family plan.
Together, we use about 400 of our 1000 minutes, 200 of our 500 texts, and 150MB of data in a heavy month.
We could easily chop a big chunk off our monthly bill, while adding the data features not currently included in our data add-on. (picture mail, specifically, for which our damned relatives and friends continue to ignore my repeated requests to NOT send picture mail, since we get charged for each one)
The only thing holding me back is losing the grandfathered plan if ting goes away or jacks it prices, because once a grandfathered plan is gone, it's gone forever. (Happened by way of an incompetent salesperson when upgrading phones, when we had an even older plan that more closely matched our actual usage.)
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Originally Posted by primetechv2
Dear goodness, look at those phones and those prices. Maybe that's while Motorola unveiled the Photon and the Triumph at the same time. While looking appeizting (sic), are those prices really worthwhile?
Talk is (relatively) cheap. Text is kinda excessive when you realize how little it costs a cell phone network to provide those services, but it's bearable. Data is also below par (you know, how when you get below par on a golf course it's a good thing)... but think about it now, a 3GB of data for a single phone is $66/month -- and that's after you foot the cost of a pretty high-priced postpaid phone.
Point obviously missed.
If you look at this for a family that uses their phones fairly often, it is totally unbeatable. On Verizon, you'd be paying $150/mo just for data, $310 total, assuming the 1400 minute plan. On Ting, with everything XXL, the whole bill is $156, and you can add more phones for $6/mo, so if you have say, 6 or 7 people who would share a plan, on Verizon or AT&T you'd need two plans, here you need one, so the savings goes up farther.
One catch is that there are no N&W minutes, or In Network/ M2M/M2AM, anything like that, but still, the overages are so reasonable, even if you were using 12k texts/mo (over 5+ users), you're breaking even with Verizon on that part.
If you factor in the cost of the phones as well, over a 24-mo period of time, you still come out ahead. For sake of comparison, I'm choosing equivalent phones, at $99/ea on Verizon, even though good Verizon phones are $299/ea on contract, they are not comparable devices (i.e. DROID RAZR MAXX). I also assumed all Photon 4Gs, even though when you're actually paying for the hardware, it might make sense to downsize a bit for some users. I'm comparing 3000 Ting minutes to 1400 Verizon because of In Network, N&W, and Friends and Family.
Now, let's drop to 2K minutes and 2 HTC Details, and 3 Samsung Conquers:
Hardware cost: $1675
Monthly: $139
24-mo TCO: $5011
That's about a third less, for a somewhat lesser service. It will probably be a good value for a lot of people. If you don't use your phones as much, and are willing to use some lesser devices, you could easily pull the cost back even more:
Ting with 2000 mins/MB and 6k texts:
Hardware cost: $1155
Monthly: $121
24-mo TCO: $4059
Throw in a Verizon 4G LTE hotspot for data when traveling, and your TCO is still only $5259.
Is probably you best bet. The reality is, it's not Verizon service, but if it's good enough, then it could save a lot of money. There is no free ride, but if Sprint's NV end up working out, this could be a really good alternative for some people, and it's not nearly as limiting as VM, and works well with family plans.
You seem to be overlooking quite a bit, but for you staying with VM is the thing to do. I have VM also with a V and use about 100 minutes a month and 200-300 MBs, no texts. I don't get my push mail as I should and data is not dependable, not that Thing will be better.
They also have rollover~ and 4G WIMAX (for now) and with me being in a well covered WIMAX area it's a no-brainier!
You're right, for the data (and without the minutes) VM is still unbeatable. Data is more a personal preference, but heavy charges for texts are a big pet peeve of mine.
If you look at this for a family that uses their phones fairly often, it is totally unbeatable. On Verizon, you'd be paying $150/mo just for data, $310 total, assuming the 1400 minute plan. On Ting, with everything XXL, the whole bill is $156, and you can add more phones for $6/mo, so if you have say, 6 or 7 people who would share a plan, on Verizon or AT&T you'd need two plans, here you need one, so the savings goes up farther.
One catch is that there are no N&W minutes, or In Network/ M2M/M2AM, anything like that, but still, the overages are so reasonable, even if you were using 12k texts/mo (over 5+ users), you're breaking even with Verizon on that part.
If you factor in the cost of the phones as well, over a 24-mo period of time, you still come out ahead. For sake of comparison, I'm choosing equivalent phones, at $99/ea on Verizon, even though good Verizon phones are $299/ea on contract, they are not comparable devices (i.e. DROID RAZR MAXX). I also assumed all Photon 4Gs, even though when you're actually paying for the hardware, it might make sense to downsize a bit for some users. I'm comparing 3000 Ting minutes to 1400 Verizon because of In Network, N&W, and Friends and Family.
Now, let's drop to 2K minutes and 2 HTC Details, and 3 Samsung Conquers:
Hardware cost: $1675
Monthly: $139
24-mo TCO: $5011
That's about a third less, for a somewhat lesser service. It will probably be a good value for a lot of people. If you don't use your phones as much, and are willing to use some lesser devices, you could easily pull the cost back even more:
Ting with 2000 mins/MB and 6k texts:
Hardware cost: $1155
Monthly: $121
24-mo TCO: $4059
Throw in a Verizon 4G LTE hotspot for data when traveling, and your TCO is still only $5259.
Is probably you best bet. The reality is, it's not Verizon service, but if it's good enough, then it could save a lot of money. There is no free ride, but if Sprint's NV end up working out, this could be a really good alternative for some people, and it's not nearly as limiting as VM, and works well with family plans.
Let's not forget they are not discouraging BYOD Sprint devices either.
P R E P A I D is just another way to offer (and pay for) premium services and devices.
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Originally Posted by vmobi
Let's not forget they are not discouraging BYOD Sprint devices either.
AFAIK, they don't allow BYOD as of right now. Which is a shame, because the iPhone is available unlocked, and I'm sure there's plenty of Sprint devices on the internets.
AFAIK, they don't allow BYOD as of right now. Which is a shame, because the iPhone is available unlocked, and I'm sure there's plenty of Sprint devices on the internets.
We're just getting started... there are a number hurdles we need to overcome in order to let people bring their own device to Ting. That being said, we've seen a couple of customers using non-Ting CDMA devices use our service by using their ESN/MEID (serial number) of a Ting registered device. We think this is great and we're doing what we can to support them.
But like I said, we just launched, so we have some work to do in order to better understand HOW we can help customers in this area.
Sorry we don't have more to officially share with you yet.
I should get my Samsung Conquer in the mail tomorrow, looking forward to getting it up and running and rooted.
This is excellent to hear about how they will handle updates, from their Facebook page:
"The updates are handled over the Sprint network. The timetable for updates is ROUGHLY the same as for Sprint phones but could happen a few weeks later."
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Originally Posted by primetechv2
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