RingPlus Drops Lawsuit Against Sprint

A couple weeks ago, RingPlus, the Sprint freemium MVNO, suddenly went dark. New activations were suddenly no longer available, and RingPlus staff, which were normally very active on the forums, were noticeably absent. As it turned out, the company had fallen into some problems with Sprint and even filed a lawsuit. However, it looks like the suit has been dismissed with prejudice, which means that it can never be brought up again. According to a post on the RingPlus forums, the lawsuit was voluntarily dropped by RingPlus. Details on exactly what kind of deal was reached (or other reasoning for the voluntary dismissal) are not available, but it seems kind of like the death knell for this little MVNO. Sprint certainly has a lot of legal power behind it, so it’s reasonable to assume that either the lawsuit was deemed to have no basis or else the company simply didn’t have the funds to duke it out with Sprint. The lawsuit, you’ll recall, was for a bevy of issues including breach of contract, extortion, trade dress infringement, patent infringement, and unfair practices and competition, to name a few. Last week we reported that RingPlus customers were going to lose service by February 11, but it looks like the company managed to negotiate an extension until February 21, 2017. On that date, customers who have not already ported out of RingPlus will be transferred to Ting. If you don’t want to use Ting, you can check this post for porting options. RingPlus first drew attention when it debuted its free plans, which allows users to listen to advertisements in exchange for free minutes every month. The company rearranged its plans frequently and offered “flash sales” which were sometimes deals and sometimes not; but always limited. As a result, the company plan lineup was extremely confusing. However, it had a good following and fairly recently reorganized its structure a little with the “mad” plans. For now, it looks like the company may be finished. If I hear any other news about the startup, I’ll be sure to let everyone know. If you had RingPlus, leave me a note below and let me know what your experience was!]]>