Eating My Own Dog Food, First Two Months with Ting Wireless

Back in July, 2012; I signed P3C Technologies up to be a reseller for Ting Wireless.  I did so because this looked like an excellent opportunity to add to my portfolio for home and small business customers.  At the time, I was not a Ting Wireless subscriber.  What better way, I figured, to become a good advocate of the service than to eat my own dog-food and sign-up myself!  I was not able to do so till my contract expired with Verizon.  Then when my Droid Incredible cell phone finally stopped working for me in September, I figured it was a sign to go for it!

It has now been a little over 2 months since I signed up for Ting Wireless with a Samsung Galaxy SIII and I must say I am very impressed with this company.

Pros:

• No hold customer service during their business hours (8-8 EST) – you get a live person to speak with when you call that you can understand, no menu, no message.
• No contract – yes, I paid a bit more for my phone up-front, but I am not under contract to stay with Ting for any length of time
• Reasonable prices – I pay $6 / month for each device I have on the plan, and then just pay for the minutes / data I use at very reasonable rates.  No overage penalties.
• Account dashboard – lets me track my usage on my phone and on their website, along with setting alerts for usage points to warn me when I would jump to the next usage level.
• Allows disabling of features – say I don’t want texting turned on for my phone, I can block it.  Say I’m done using the Internet on my phone for a while, I can block it!  This feature also works well for children if you need to take away their texting privileges for a while as a punishment.
• Socially engaged – Ting is very engaged with its customers on their FaceBook page, including offering regular deals on phones and adding lines
• Great phone line-up – Ting is committed to bringing some of the best phones to their service, including refurbished phones for a very reasonable rate and a bring your own device (BYOD) initiative.  They have started doing this in beta form with Sprint cell phones, but their eventual goal is to do so with all carriers (if the carriers are willing)

Cons:

• Relies on Sprint’s network – while not bad, it is also not stellar in this area.  If service coverage is your number one concern, in this area, check out US Cellular.  In other areas, check out Verizon.  I have not had much trouble at all, I can usually always make a call that is clear with no static wherever I am.  But I have to admit that in some buildings I enter, I do not have a signal when my previous phone with Verizon had a sliver of coverage inside.  I continue to support Ting even with this limitation because I believe Sprint will get better, and I believe in what Ting is doing as a company.
• No data roaming – Let’s say that Sprint coverage for data is not available in your area, but another carrier does have it.  Ting does not allow you to roam to their network.  Their reason:  “Within the US our default network is Sprint. When Sprint isn’t available we’ll fallback (roam) to other networks for Voice and Text. We do not fallback to other networks for data. It is cost prohibitive to do so at the rates we charge and we’re not interested in adding surcharges for data roaming within the country”.  I have not noticed too many spots where this is an issue, and most places I go have Wi-Fi turned on, so this is not a concern for me.  But it is a very valid concern for some.
• Night / weekend or Mobile-to-Mobile Not Free – This is something I got used to at Verizon, where calls I placed late night / weekend / to another Verizon customer were free. This is not the case with Ting.  But, I watch my usage via Ting’s usage alerts and my online dashboard and manage my costs.  This is the best way I have found to save money on my wireless service.