Ting is a US wireless carrier that lets you create your own plan by choosing how much data, voice, and text you want. This can lead to much lower phone bills than you’d get with competitors if, for instance, you barely use your phone to talk, send a lot of text messages, and don’t need much data.

But up until now Ting’s Achilles heel may have been its coverage: Ting piggybacks on Sprint’s CDMA network. So if Sprint coverage is lousy where you live, Ting’s will be too.

Starting in February, 2015 Ting will offer another option though. The company will also begin letting you bring your own phone to the service.

ting gsm

Ting will begin offering GSM network access. That means that while Ting users will still be able to use Sprint’s network, supported devices will also be able to access an unnamed GSM network (which is almost certainly T-Mobile, based on a comparison of Ting and T-Mobile’s coverage maps.

Not only does that mean that you’ll be able to use Ting if you’re in an area where T-Mobile offers better service than Sprint, but it also means that you won’t need to buy a phone from Ting.

Most CDMA phones are locked to a single carrier, but many GSM phones are either unlocked or unlockable. Ting says that means customers will be able to bring their own unlocked phones including the iPhone 6 and Nexus 6 to Ting once the company starts offering GSM service. You’ll just need to pop in a Ting SIM card.

And if you use multiple devices with Ting, they don’t need to be on the same network. The company will let you share a pool of minutes, messages, and data between devices, even if one is a CDMA phone and another is a GSM device.

via Android Central

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11 replies on “US mobile carrier Ting to offer GSM service in 2015 (along with CDMA)”

  1. for people that use 500MB or less a month, Ting is better than T-mobile. For people that use more than 500MB a month, the T-mobile $30 prepaid plan is still the clear winner

  2. Ugh! Tmobile has 2g in my area, sprint has lte but service is usually bad. I’ll just stick with att

  3. What’s with Canada being stuck with such a poor selection of mobile carriers? Essentially, we only have Bell, Rogers and Telus to choose from (including their subsidiaries, such as Koodo, Fido, Virgin Mobile, etc.).

    1. Because those three essentially run the CRTC, plus the archaic foreign ownership rules that block out any source of competition?

      1. Actually, the Canadian government was pushing for the public to embrace Verizon’s entry into the Canadian economy, but too many organizations supporting Canadian carriers protested to the point of Verizon deciding not to enter our market, although the federal government continued to try to bring them in. Even though Verizon wouldn’t necessarily help us out as a provider in the many rural areas of Canada, it could have provided affordable high-speed network coverage in urban areas and its lower prices would have forced Bell, Rogers and Telus to finally lower their rates nation-wide. The primary controversy regarding Verizon’s entry was the fact that it is larger than all of Canada’s mobile carriers combined.

        1. The Canadian government was even disallowing Canadian companies from buying out many bankrupt carriers, but allowing Verizon to purchase them. I would have liked the extra competition to finally bring Canadian mobile rates down to those of the United States.

  4. I switched my family plan from Sprint to Ting 2 months ago. Have been quite happy. Its a really good plan for those who are usually using wifi (lower data usage). I think the switch to also allow GSM is more about allowing users to access the latest phones (iphone 6, one plus one) rather than coverage with Sprint.

    1. I dropped Ting a long time ago and switched to freedompop with unlimited data for the same price as 100 minutes of talk and 100mb of data… way better option I use hangouts dialer for most of my calling

      1. Unless you need reliable voice coverage, since FreedomPop has no voice coverage, ting also has voice roaming.

      2. I actually moved from FreedomPop to Ting. The only issue I had with FreedomPop was how it handled voice calls. It actually is a VOIP service, and therefore needs a fast and reliable data connection in your area. Plus, numbers couldn’t be ported over to FreedomPop when I was with them, and switching numbers wasn’t an option for me.

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