Ting: MVNO Says BYOD

Ting announced that in the next quarter, it will let customers use their own Sprint phones. That means Ting’s selection of new phones will increase dramatically and customers will be able to use their old Sprint phones.

Ting is a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) that resells mobile access to the Sprint  network. It buys at wholesale rates and resells in competition with Sprint and other carriers.

Ting’s retail prices are low. It doesn’t require a contract and you only pay for the number of voice minutes, data bits and text messages you actually use. Compare your current mobile bill to Ting’s prices using a simple calculator on its site and see if it’ll make a difference for you.

The drawback was that you needed to buy a new phone from Ting and its phone selection was limited.

Fortunately, that restriction will fade away soon with the recent announcement that  customers use their own Sprint phones.  Ting’s selection of new phones will increase a lot, as I pointed out. And customers will be able to use their old Sprint phones. Ting execs do point out that at first there will be restrictions — a small list of specific handsets won’t be included.

If you check Ting’s prices, you will find significant savings over the major cellular companies. If you can bring your old Sprint phone or choose from a wide selection of new phones, Ting and other MVNOs sound like a terrific deal for those in areas with good Sprint coverage. The deal is even sweeter if you live in an area that is or will soon be covered by Sprint LTE.

I don’t know how Ting does it. Perhaps Sprint’s wholesale price or Ting is just efficient. It consistently offers a better retail deal than Sprint, for example. In all likelihood, Ting just charges more rationally than its competitors.

ED: Ting execs weren’t available to comment at this writing.

Since 2009, U.S. data traffic has exceeded voice traffic and is still growing rapidly. But remember the cell phone companies gain most of their revenue from voice.

Have the cellular and cable companies arrived at a gentleman’s agreement to reduce what little is left of Internet service competition? I’ll be looking into that for you. The cellular companies are getting out of the land line business and the cable companies are getting out of the mobile business.

MVNOs like Ting are out to disrupt the mobile market. With new pricing like what it recently announced, it sure has a shot.

For aNewDomain.net, I’m Larry Press.