Ting Mobile: What Are the Pros and Cons?
- Plans available to cater to different budgets
- Shareable data plans available
- Limited number of phones available
- No truly unlimited data plans
- No stores for in-person support
- Pricing higher than most on a per GB level
Postpaid Phone Plans
How Ting Plans Work
Ting Mobile was founded in 2012. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of publicly traded Tucows INC. In 2020, DISH acquired the rights to use the Ting Mobile brand name for a period of two years. That agreement was later extended at least until the end of 2023.
At launch, service was provided exclusively on the Sprint network. Since 2015 it has partnered with T-Mobile. In February 2020, the company officially added Verizon as a 3rd network partner, although service is no longer offered on that network to new customers obtaining service on Ting through DISH. However, customers who get Ting service through Tucows can still get service on the Verizon network. Those limited markets are only available where Ting Fiber internet is sold.
Plans
Just one year after launching, Ting Mobile got rid of monthly prepaid plans in favor of what it called “rates.” However, the “rate model” was discontinued upon DISH obtaining the rights to use the brand.
Through the rate model, Ting effectively became a postpaid provider with a big twist. Customers didn’t actually have to choose a phone plan. Customers basically paid for what they used during a monthly billing cycle based on certain rates, which are shown in the table below.
Another example of how Ting’s rates work is like this:
If at the end of your billing cycle you only used 57 minutes, 700 texts, and 350 MB of data, your phone bill would cost you $3 for the minutes, $5 for the text messages and $10 for the data plus a $6 line charge. The next month you may pay something different depending on how much of each service feature that you use.
Upon DISH’s Ting brand name acquisition, Ting has for the most part gotten rid of its pay-per-use plans and now operates more like a traditional provider. However, they still offer one pay per GB of data use plan. In short, Ting’s current DISH run plans are as follows:
- Flex – $10 per month per line for unlimited talk and text plus pay per use data billed at $5/GB of shared data
- Set 5Â – $25/month – 5GB of fast data, includes hotspot
- Set 12Â – $35/month – 12GB of fast data, 8GB can be used for hotspot
- Unlimited Basic – $45/month – 22GB of fast data, 12GB can be used for hotspot
- Unlimited Pro – $55/month – 35GB of fast data, 18GB can be used for hotspot.
Ting Mobile News
By Joe Paonessa • 03/21/23
In August 2020, DISH and Tucows jointly announced that DISH had acquired some Ting Mobi...
By Joe Paonessa • 03/31/22
Ting Mobile is currently running several phone deals. The DISH-owned MVNO’s latest deal...
By Joe Paonessa • 09/21/21
Ting has just launched a limited time special offer. Customers that activate a new line...
For an article titled Ting in 2023, this is woefully outdated. None of the plans or rates shown are currently in effect.
$6/month per line. Pay for what you use instead of a fixed monthly amount: 1-100 min=$3, 101-500min=$9, 501-1000min $18. 1-100 text=$3, 101-1000 text=$5, 1001-2000 text=$8. 1-100MB=$3, 101-500MB=$10, 501-1000MB=$16. Multiple lines on same account share minutes/texts/data.