You’re probably wondering, “what does that mean?” and “why should I care?” Both are good questions.
First, GSM is a cellular technology used for making calls on your mobile device. Ting currently offers CDMA service on the Sprint network. Verizon also uses CDMA. AT&T and T-Mobile both offer service on a GSM network.
There are a couple of reasons this is big news. It opens up a world of new phones. In the past, you had to either buy a phone from Ting or bring your own Sprint device. The devices you could bring from Sprint usually have to be at least a year old. Newer devices from Ting can be pretty expensive or not necessarily a great phone.
When GSM service becomes available in February 2015, you will have a brand new selection of phones to choose from. You can even bring unlocked phones from T-Mobile or AT&T to the Ting service. Since GSM devices are activated with a small SIM card, you can swap phones when you’d like by moving the card to a new phone. You can even buy new GSM phones at remarkably low prices (the Moto G can be purchased for around $100).
With this new offering, Ting will be one of the only, if not the only cell phone provider, that allows you to share minutes, texts, and data between a CDMA phone and GSM phone all on one monthly bill. That’s pretty remarkable stuff.
Based on the research that I’ve done, it appears that the Ting service will be using T-Mobile for their GSM network. Much like Sprint, T-Mobile has been moving quickly to improve their network and it will only get better over the next year. I’ve tried to confirm this with Ting, but have been told they cannot disclose that information. However, if you look at the source code of the GSM coverage page, you can see the coverage map is being pulled from a t-mobile.com address.
I’ve written in the past about using Ting for mobile phone service. We tried switching to Sprint thinking we were going to save money with their plans and offers, but after the runaround, we’ve went back to Ting.
I’m personally looking forward to use this new service when in becomes available since I like to try new phones quite often and I don’t like having to use only the phones that Sprint approves for Ting. Do you think you would consider Ting with these new changes? Let me know in the comments below. If you have any questions, please post those and I’ll get back to you with answers.