General Cell Phone Discussion

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Thu Dec 05, 2013 10:22 am

Free $5 gift code for Starbucks for AT&T or Verizon customers who do a price check with Ting.

You give them your login info, they tell you how much you can save, and then send you the $5 gift code.

Post by **TPRJones** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 9:43 am

You know, I NEVER give other companies my login info, but this is one situation where I would consider it (if it applied to me). It's weird, but I just trust Tucows that much.

Post by **TheCatt** » Fri Dec 06, 2013 10:03 am

I did it when I did the billing comparison when I was investigating switching.

Post by **TheCatt** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:14 pm

Went to DC for the weekend, which means a lot of mobile usage for me. It mostly worked well, I was able to watch UNC play basketball while I was going up 95, surf the web, keep up with fantasy and sports scores, etc. Data coverage was spotty at times, though. Part of the problem being that to keep prices low, Ting does not support data roaming.

So far, so decent. We'll see.

Post by **TPRJones** » Tue Dec 10, 2013 2:52 pm

I didn't know that.

Coverage is so dense around here I haven't had to try to roam.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 5:50 pm

So... I've been using it for about 20 days now. Overall, it's working very well. The data is spottier than Verizon. I think I may have something misconfigured, as I have yet to be on LTE where I live, but I'm pretty sure Spring has LTE here.

Ting estimates my first month of usage at $60. Compare to the $141/month we were paying with Verizon.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sun Dec 22, 2013 6:38 pm

LTE issues aren't just me.

When I had the phone in DC, the LTE was AMAZING. It even worked at the Redskins' stadium, which is rare for phones due to the amount of devices there.

Guess I have to wait until Sprint figures its shit out.

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Mon Dec 23, 2013 1:30 am

So these phones ride on the Sprint network?

Post by **TheCatt** » Mon Dec 23, 2013 8:14 am

Cakedaddy wrote:So these phones ride on the Sprint network?

Correct. Most MVNOs use Sprint.

Post by **TheCatt** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:02 pm

Wow. First month over. I have had no dropped calls, nor problems making calls. Although, the data coverage has been a bit spotty on trips. Sprint is upgrading to the Tri-band LTE, so eventually that will be fixed.

First month bill: $42 + taxes
Verizon: $141

So assuming taxes/regulatory fees are only $8 or so, that saves $91/month.

Post by **TPRJones** » Fri Jan 03, 2014 12:29 pm

Yay!

I knew it was great for low-use customers like myself, I'm glad to hear it's good for a more typical user as well.

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Jan 04, 2014 5:09 pm

Well, my wife and I are not particularly typical use, but I'm guessing it'll be around $60 monthly typically. The killer feature of this plan is the price for additional phones. $6/phone line is amazing compared to the bigs.

Post by **TheCatt** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 2:33 pm

Startup Costs: $270 ETF + $20 SIMs + $768 new Phones - $425 eBay old phones - $35 referral bonus (TPR) - $68 ETF credit = $530
Month 1: Saved $96... So will take a bit less than 6 months to break even. Then, save about $1600 over the next 18 months.

And, I read in the paper that Republic Wireless (which is also based on Sprint) was warning about upgrades in January. Sure enough, I started getting LTE coverage on my phone! I don't think it's the super-duper Sprint Spark, but it's LTE, and it's fast.

Post by **Leisher** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 3:59 pm

Just curious: Do you need a cell phone for work? If so, don't they cover your costs?

Post by **Cakedaddy** » Fri Jan 10, 2014 5:44 pm

Can you count the money you got ebaying old phones as part of your savings for switching when you would have ebayed them with Verizon as well when you got new phones?

Post by **TheCatt** » Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:32 am

Leisher wrote:Just curious: Do you need a cell phone for work? If so, don't they cover your costs?

When I was a manager, work paid my cell phone. When I decided to not be a mgr, I stopped submitting the expenses. I guess I need it for my day job, but that never happens. I might be called 1x/month at most for dayjob.

I need it for my consulting company, so I expense 1/2 of it.

Can you count the money you got ebaying old phones as part of your savings for switching when you would have ebayed them with Verizon as well when you got new phones?

I still had 16 or so months left on my contract (thus the ETF fee), so the phones wouldnt have been sold for a long time, and I would have had to pay $200/phone out of pocket for new ones in that event.

Paul · Post by **Paul** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 7:34 pm

TMobile puts out a great press release.

Post by **GORDON** » Wed Jan 29, 2014 7:49 pm

You can almost hear the AT&T lawyers, hundreds of miles away, scrambling to change the terms of the deal.

Post by **TheCatt** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:27 pm

Ting lowers prices even more.

For data I walk that line between L and XL... So the months we hit XL it's now $13 cheaper, and $5 cheaper on the L months. So our bill was $60 this month, and same usage would be $47 next month.

Post by **TPRJones** » Mon Feb 03, 2014 2:35 pm

I wonder if that's the first time in history that a cell company just was all "oh, by the way, we're going to start charging you a little less now, we hope that's okay" to all their customers.

Ting: So Refreshing!