Tucows’s MVNO service Ting Mobile announced that it now counts 22,000 subscribers who were formerly with the now defunct RingPlus service. However, Tucows anticipates that there will be significant churn, and it hopes Ting will be able to retain approximately 5,000 to 7,000 of those former RingPlus users on its service as paid subscribers. Like RingPlus, Ting Mobile also operates as a mobile virtual network operator to rebrand and resell Sprint’s service. However, unlike RingPlus, Ting Mobile also supports GSM through an MVNO agreement with T-Mobile.
When RingPlus shuttered its service, Ting Mobile had entered into an agreement with the MVNO to acquire its subscribers. At the time, RingPlus claimed that it had approximately 100,000 subscribers. However, Tucows revealed that it later discovered that only some ten percent of RingPlus users had paid accounts, and the remaining users were on free calling plans that were ad supported.
In a post-earnings call, Tucows executives revealed that the number of RingPlus subscribers Ting Mobile was able to migrate was actually lower than what the company had expected. While Ting was initially led to believe that there were 80,000 RingPlus accounts, the company found that 35,000 of those accounts were dormant . Tucows CEO Elliott Noss said that the company added 5,500 customers organically and another 9,000 former RingPlus subscribers migrated to Ting Mobile using a credit card. During the call, Noss said that Ting earned $18 million in revenue from the quarter for mobile, which is up compared to $16.1 million from a year prior.
Ting Mobile’s cheapest plan starts at $6 per month for a single line, but you’ll have to pay separately for the voice minutes, text messages and data you use. On its website, a single line with 500 included voice minutes, 1,000 text messages and 2 GB of data usage per month would cost $40. Ting allows users to customize their plans based on the number of lines you need, how many minutes you require, how many text messages you intend on using and how much data you will consume on a monthly basis. Ting says that its plans are contract-free, and because no commitment is required, no cancellation fee will be assessed should you decide to leave. Ting also sells a number of mid-range and budget Android smartphones on its site, but you can bring your own unlocked CDMA or GSM smartphone if you don’t want to buy a new one. The highest end Android phones that Ting Mobile sells currently are Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL.