Last December, the popular postpaid no-contract MVNO
Ting announced that it was planning on launching a GSM service to complement the Sprint-powered CDMA service Ting already offers. It’s widely accepted that the GSM service will be with T-Mobile, and closed invite-only beta testing has been going on for a few months now. However, yesterday, Ting finally declared that the GSM service is ready for an open beta, and anyone who has a compatible GSM device can now
purchase and activate a SIM card to test out the new service. It’s a huge step for this little MVNO.
In an industry first, Ting will be allowing customers to have both GSM and CDMA lines on the same account, sharing minutes, messages and MB. Select devices, such as the Nexus 5, will even be able to use both CDMA and GSM lines, although different numbers will be required for each service, and customers will be charged the $6 monthly device fee for each line. However, switching between GSM and CDMA would be as simple as swapping out SIM cards, which is pretty exciting.
The GSM service, as it is still in beta, is still working out some of the kinks, so expect a few bugs here and there as they iron out the last few details. The blog post Ting published yesterday stated that international roaming is currently not supported with the GSM service, and international long distance is also not allowed at the moment. Presumably, this will be offered eventually as there are international offerings through Ting’s Sprint-powered CDMA service. You can check on bugs and technical information for the GSM service via Ting’s discussion board.
SIM cards are
on sale now for $9 and feature a break out card that will allow users to snap the SIM card to whatever size is required for the individual phone. GSM customers will, of course, be subject to the same tiered rate plan that CDMA customers already use.
You can check it out here.
For more information on Ting services and phones,
visit Ting’s website.]]>
