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As a few of us posted higher up in the discussion, try Ting.com https://ting.com/usage_calculator. You get billed based on what you use. If you go over, you get bumped up to the next category for that month only and billed appropriately (e.g. going from the 800 texts for $5.00 for a month to 1200 texts bumps you up to the $8 category for that month).

No contracts, buy the phone up front. The bill is straight, pay for what you use. Again, I wrote this already but if Sprint reception sucks in your area or you use a lot of data ($13 per month for 500MB, $24 for 1GB, $42 for 2GB, then about $20 per GB above that) it doesn't save you money.

Ting is a great company, and I'm a happy customer, too.

Parent is a sleazy spammer for posting a referral link without mentioning that it earns him $25 as well.

Go directly to https://ting.com/, or find a friend who's using it and use their referral link. Screw sneaky spammers.

While I agree that virtually all cell services here are a huge rip-off, a few things you said just don't seem to make sense:

Every mobile device is designed to insure that easily pushed wrong buttons lead to over consumption of data.

Are you talking specifically about dumbphones...? I ask because I haven't seen any buttons in Android that can't be moved by the user and lead to something that uses data. If you did mean just the old dumbphones, then that's not "every mobile device" by a longshot...

And just logging on through a carriers proxy server, redirects you to various "associated partner's" sites= more over charged data consumption.

Is it a Verizon/AT&T thing, or something Sprint, T-Mo, or most MVNOs also do?

I only got a data plan & smartphone for the first time in January when I signed up with the year-old Sprint MVNO Ting, and I haven't seen anything like you describe. Come to think of it, I don't think that I saw any proxies or similar when I watched my father look stuff up on the web with his, and I know he's with one of the big carriers like AT&T.

And how about all those obscure "fees" tacked onto our bills.

I haven't seen those, either -- the prepaid dumbphone services I used were a flat fee every x weeks, and Ting's setup isn't much more complex (add up the price tiers for # of devices, minutes, texts, and megs used, period). Or did you mean government fees of some sort that the carriers have no control over?

I don't mean to sound like an advert, but as shitty as your carriers have been, you really should check Ting out. FWIW Sprint-network reception in my suburb is really weak, but to my way of thinking, the good aspects of Ting are more than worth whatever minor inconvenience it might cause as long as it works!

Or, if you want to stick with Sprint's coverage (including voice roaming on Verizon) you can try Ting, which also has inexpensive "plan" pricing, provided you are willing to buy your phone.

Data is not particularly cheap with Ting, but my family (4 phones so far) doesn't use a lot of that anyway, so it winds up being fairly inexpensive for us. T-mobile would be $100 per month (or more) plus tax for us, and our high bill has been $67, so we've made up the up the up-front cost of the phones.

Ting doesn't have 2 year contracts or any of that noise, either, so we can leave anytime. Even though I don't want to leave, it's nice to have the freedom, and not worry about ETF's.

if you are interested in Ting, use this referral code, and save a little money:
https://zs8p4n4rq.ting.com/

Ting is another MVNO on Sprint's network, but they do VOICE roaming to Verizon. (not data)

Depending on usage, they can be even cheaper than Virgin. The one complicated part about them is that you have to buy your phone upfront, which makes comparing oranges (no apples allowed yet) to other fruit more difficult.

Our family has 4 smartphones, many bought from craigslist, that have cost a net of $560. Our usage bills us for $67 per month, plus taxes (under $15) If you have a sprint phone that is paid for, you don't even have that startup cost to overcome. Still, saving more than $40 per month verses our previous bit with AT&T, we got there fast. Buying top end, unlocked, brand new phones would make it harder, though.

some people get concerned about the "pay for what you use" model, but for us, it has been really beneficial. I don't even stress about going "over" into the next bucket, because it's really only an incremental charge, not a "blow you out of the water" thing.

If you use this referral code, you can get a signup discount too:
https://zs8p4n4rq.ting.com/

From Virgin: Venture, Chaser, and Optimus Elite still have 2.3. Ting also has the Optimus Elite.

3 providers? Aren't there 4?. AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-mobile. T-mobile even dropped the contracts - sort of.

Also, there are an increasing number of no-contract and prepaid services that are becoming credible contenders.

Metro PCS, Virgin Mobile, Boost mobile, Straight Talk, Net 10. There are MVNOs for every one of the major services so you could stay with AT&T's network if you want.

Personally, I switched my family from AT&T to Ting 4 months ago (yeah, shamelessly putting my referral link in there). AT&T bill for a really pared back plan was $110, the Ting bill has averaged $40 and it's a better plan. But you do have to buy the phones.

Almost no one likes their carrier.

That's true, almost no one does, except those that use Ting.
Ting is a new MVNO running on the Sprint network with only an online presence so they have very little overhead. If you want an honest cell phone provider that bills for what you use usage, has no overage penalties, doesn't have any contracts whatsoever, lets you add and remove devices on the fly, and will typically cut your cell phone bill in half; then look no further.

Ting is delivering what the rest of the market will be forced to provide in time, they're just ahead of the game.
The best part is you can just buy a decent cheap Sprint android phone off ebay for around $100 and be off and running. You can activate pretty much any Sprint android phone on Sprint with their BYOD (bring your own device) program.

Wake up and demand to be treated better from the cell phone providers. We finally have options now, let's exercise that privilege.
http://www.ting.com

http://www.ting.com/

It's hard to be happier.

If you like it enough to sign up, let me shill it for you and get us both a discount.

if you can afford a smartphone and a phone control, you can damn well afford to pay a buck or two for the paid version.

Smartphones aren't expensive anymore, and someone that takes the time to do a bit of research on phone companies before picking one will be able to find options that also aren't pricy. I paid ~$85 each for the 2 refurbished LG Marquee smartphones I bought from my new cell service provider (Ting), got a $100 credit towards my future bills, and look likely to pay maybe $25/month for both of us put together -- less than we paid for dumbphone service through our previous provider. For the record, my income is ~$850/month each (hers about a third less due to bureaucratic crap) as we're both disabled; it took about a year to save up enough for our phones.

Also, I've seen relatively few high-quality apps that were just a dollar -- the prices I saw averaged around $4-5 with some doubling that -- and it seemed like quite a few of the 99 ones had something shady going on based on the warnings that appeared in reviews.

We need to end carrier only phones and phones with all the carrier software forced on you that you have to hack your own phone to remove it you should have the choice of how much of the software that you want. Visual voice mail (good), a app that let's you see how many mins / data / txt of your plan that you used ...

The best way to do that for now is for people to quit choosing the carriers that require contracts, stuff phones full of crap then lock them down. If enough people stopped "voting" with their wallets in favor of those practices, the big companies would eventually change their tune.

It does mean (as in my case) going with what the person can afford rather than the absolute latest technology... However, IMHO it's more than worth it knowing I fully own my phone, I'm not locked to a contract or charged for a bundle of data/txt/minutes I'll never use just to get what I do need, and my funds support a company (in my case Ting) that favors our freedom rather than the ones that favor only whatever gets them more money. Complaining about how our nation's government-corrupting cell companies shaft their customers, then giving them money to continue doing it doesn't make a lot of sense in my book unless there are no other options whatsoever.

a) The topic is cellular in canada. ting.com is american.

b) google voice is also not easily available in canada last time i checked

c) 12$ a month represents almost no usage; based on this chart: https://ting.com/plans

I'd still average $55+ depending on what the "regulatory" surcharges add up to. (E911 service, taxes and so forth).

From Ting's Why Ting page:

Why Ting: Reason #13

We speak Android.

We have a great collection of video tips, tutorials and reviews on the OS and apps.

Also, we welcome you to call and ask us your Android questions. You will never hear, “Oh, that’s not a Ting issue.” We want to be part of your entire mobile experience.

The prepay plans are setup for that.

It's too bad most of the well-known prepaid carriers are CDMA2000. You can't very well bring your own phone because CDMA2000 service in the United States doesn't use a CSIM, and carriers tend not to activate each other's phones. For example, Boost and Virgin handsets don't port to Ting. So you're limited to one carrier's selection of phones, and I've found that a lot of prepaid carriers are stuck with years-old models.

Seriously, go to Ting's web site and check out the pricing. You pick how many minutes, texts, and data you want. If you plan on only using data on your smartphone when you're on wifi, you can do that. We joined Ting about a month ago and couldn't be happier. Our monthly phone bill has plummeted even though we upgraded from feature phones to smartphones (dumping Verizon along the way). You can see the pricing options at https://ting.com/plans

https://ting.com/plans

It's a pay as you go, and as far as SMS, rather cheap. I've used them for a while now, and absolutely love 'em. On low usage months, I pay a minimal amount, more then making up for those few high usage months.

Check out Ting. Brought to you by Tucows. They run on Sprint's CDMA/4G LTE network. I have voice, text messaging, AND data, and I'm paying less than $30 a month (no contracts) - less than half what I was on with Sprint.

Each component is priced separately, and you only pay for what you use - they automatically move you to the correct service level for each part at the end of each month.

They have awesome tech support - they actually turn off their hold system during the day, and the phone rings until a human picks up the phone... and then the person you talk to actually KNOWS something, not just follows a script.

The only "catch" is that you have to buy your phone - but honestly the "free phone" nonsense from other providers is just a way to rope you into a contract where you pay ten times the cost of the phone over the life of the contract.

Check them out!

(Disclaimer: Yeah, I get a discount if you use that link to sign up, but go ahead, they're freakin' awesome.)

For example, dumbphone plans on Virgin Mobile (a Sprint MVNO) start at $5 per month

Virgin Mobile's $5 plan seems to be gone. The cheapest payLo plan I see is $20/mo.

Ting is one of the better Sprint MVNO choices for light users and especially families of light users; they have a $6/line/month charge and buckets based on usage. You can share buckets on multiple lines on the same account, bring your own devices (subject to restrictions), and there are no surcharges for smartphones. They also have voice and text (but not data) roaming to VZW, unlike the Sprint-owned VM USA and Boost.

I plan to: T-Mobile has $30 for 5gb 4G+unlimited txt+100 min. talk and Ting's plans are only for smartphones; both get good reviews.

Well, I'm HOPING to get this phone, but not until it's available on Ting. Don't know when (or if) that will be, but that's what I'm waiting for. I prefer them to Virgin as they roam voice & text to Verizon (not data sadly). Virgin (another Sprint MVNO like Ting) doesn't roam.

The fact that their customer support is also WAY better doesn't hurt either. :)

If you wanna try Ting, feel free to use either twig.ting.com to get $50 off your first order, or, if you're feeling altruistic, my referal to get $25 off your order and me $25 off my bill. As someone who came from Virgin, I'm quite pleased with them. Depending on usage & service, though, YMMV (that is, if you're a HEAVY data user and Sprint gets great service in your area, you might be better off with Virgin).

Well, I'm HOPING to get this phone, but not until it's available on Ting. Don't know when (or if) that will be, but that's what I'm waiting for. I prefer them to Virgin as they roam voice & text to Verizon (not data sadly). Virgin (another Sprint MVNO like Ting) doesn't roam.

The fact that their customer support is also WAY better doesn't hurt either. :)

If you wanna try Ting, feel free to use either twig.ting.com to get $50 off your first order, or, if you're feeling altruistic, my referal to get $25 off your order and me $25 off my bill. As someone who came from Virgin, I'm quite pleased with them. Depending on usage & service, though, YMMV (that is, if you're a HEAVY data user and Sprint gets great service in your area, you might be better off with Virgin).

Ting also now offers the Airave femtocell device (it's currently $190). If Sprint coverage is weak in your home or office but pretty good everywhere else you spend a lot of time, this is a possible option. Caveat: I've not bought one yet but am considering it.

Note though that Ting roams w/o charge for voice and text (NOT data) to Verizon so that's comforting. For data, Ting doesn't roam so their data footprint is not even as good as what native Sprint shows (check Ting's coverage maps, not Sprint's). Unfortunately, I have found that in my home where the Verizon signal is strong, Sprint's appears quite a bit weaker resulting in poor voice quality, but it's strong enough that I don't roam to Verizon :(

Ting's "bucket" system of charging is a bit annoying. I would prefer a pure utility model - use 110 minutes, pay for 110 minutes (instead of being bumped up to the next tier and pay $10 for 390 minutes I didn't use -- and there's no rollover).

That said, I'm quite happy with the service due to good value for the money (did I mention it's quite cheap if you don't use much data). They have great customer service with the exception their hours are limited to Monday to Friday from 8am until 8pm (ET) although it appears that some employees monitor issues/forums "on their own time" and get some issues resolved outside of normal hours. It's a nice solution for some - esp. with multiple phones (all devices share minutes/text/megabytes).

And, like others, using this referral link will get you $25 off your first device (full disclosure, it also gives me $25 credit when that device is activated): https://z7gc11rf4.ting.com/

There'd be riots in the fucking streets if your electric company tried to pull that shit. But for telecom, it's the only way it's done. You're fucked if you use too much and you're fucked if you use too little, and if you want to switch to a different provider, well, there's less than five of them, and they all have the same plans, but we assure you that there's no collusion in this free market, no sir!

Well, not the ONLY way...

Not related to the company at all, just a very happy subscriber. I'd give you my referral code, but I don't want to give the impression that I'm only pumping them for discounts.

I've been a Ting customer since March (right after they came out of their beta period) and I would recommend them as long as you have good Sprint coverage in your area and can afford paying for your phone(s) up front. They've had some growing pains (mostly related to their device selection) but are a very straightforward company in regards to billing, support, etc. If you check out their blog and support forums, you can see responses from the company regarding their pricing philosophy (only pay for your usage, no free minute/rollover/unlimited gimmicks), pro-phone hacking (threads regarding rooting phones they offer), future device lineup, LTE rollout plans, iPhone plans, etc.

My monthly bill comes out to about $30 (after taxes) for 2 HTC smartphones using 100MB of data, 1,000 text messages and 500 minutes.

Feel free to use my referral link to get $25 off a device. :)

https://zdc121s16.ting.com/

Can't vouch for quality since I haven't tried many providers... but it is super affordable. Their usage is tiered, but they'll automatically move you without any penalty to whatever tier you use for that month, even if you use a lower tier. Yes, that means if you're on a 500 MB plan and you use less than than 100 MB, they'll charge you for the 100 MB for that month. How crazy is that?

My cell phone bill went down $15 switching from a voice + text w/ AT&T to voice + text + data with Ting. Only downside is that the phones aren't subsided, so I paid $200 for mine. But obviously the prices are still going to work in my favor in the long run, especially since I'm not a phone hopper and can easily see myself keeping this one for 3-4 years.

https://ting.com/

Recently started Ting ( http://www.ting.com/ , from venerable http://www.tucows.com/ ) is an interesting MVNO. Since it is backed by an "old" company, I expect them to stick around as long as it works out for them in the first place.

You pay what you use each month depending on what tier you fall in separately for voice, texts, and data. Each device you have registered is $6 a month, but you have to buy your device from them at pretty much full cost. But frankly, over time that comes out much cheaper (I have been doing this for many years - I tend not to break my phones, though).

Works great if you have variable usage patterns and are not a really heavy user. Their data is a bit expensive, but I have read that they are working it and point their fingers at Spring charging them too much to begin with. Use home/free other Wifi if you can, and it's all good. No iPhone, but Samsung S3.

Yes, I know it's Sprint, which many don't like. But so far (joined right when they started) it has worked great, and I have cut my monthly cell phone expenses (3 lines) to $60-$80, half of what I paid before. We are mid-level users, using home-wifi if we can.

Cellphone addicts are, of course, better served by an all-unlimited plan from the big firms. I just don't see the point of supporting their profit margins that much.

Remember that Verizon is claiming in court that it has a free speech right to censor all Internet traffic across its networks. That's right, their censorship of your free speech is their free speech. And corporations, of course, have stronger free speech rights than individuals. So claims Verizon. Before federal courts that sometimes think like that themselves.

Personally, I use Sprint's networks, but through Ting. Their 3G coverage is decent in the more populated parts of rural New England (that is larger towns: good, and not overburdended; truly rural: mostly lacking). And when I go into the big cities, WiMAX works fine from most locations (and where it doesn't due to local geography, 3G is okay). We have two Android phones, use the no-extra-charge tethering frequently, and run a total bill as low as $20 a month - as compared to, what, approaching $200 a month for the two phones if on Verizon's or Sprint's plans?

I was on Sprint for voice for many years before this. They were always good. Every customer service call I made to them was well handled. I've only gone to Ting because for our usage patterns (limited voice, no texting, Internet by phone for e-mail and static web pages - our streaming needs are met by DSL at home) result in such huge savings there, while still giving us phones we can tether from.

Ting (part of Tucows) is $6 per-device per-month. Any number of devices per account. Plus usage. No extra fee for teathering. They're on Sprint's network for data (3G and WiMax-type 4G currently). And on any available CDMA network (e.g. Verizon as well as Sprint) for voice. You have to buy the phones full price up front. But the selection's decent. And the usage fees end up being way cheaper for my wife and I than our previous separate Sprint contract and Trac prepaid accounts came to. In fact it's coming in cheaper than the previous single voice-only contract on Sprint. The teathering is a very nice feature - there's not wifi everywhere yet. If you want to watch feature-length movies on mobile I'm sure it could get up into Verizon's pricing range. But for static Web content (like reading /.) it's pretty impossible to run the data charges up anywhere near there.

Ting already offers data only, voice only, text only, or any combination thereof. Use as much or as little as you want. Add family members or employees for $6. Quite a future.

In the U.S., Ting might come pretty close to your landline cost - although you have to buy a phone up front. Their (only) feature phone is $100 (Android phones start at $190 for the Optimus S).

There's a fixed $6/month for each device.

Voice, text, and data are all charged separately in tiers. You get billed for the tier you actually end up in so you don't have to guess as to how much you're going to use each month.

Voice tiers start at 100 minutes for $3/month, and 500 minutes for $9/month.

If you don't want text or data (since you're comparing to a landline), you can just disable these features so you don't accidentally incur costs for texts or data.

Multiple phones can share the same pool of minutes/texts/bytes.

No contract is required and there's no activation fee. There are of course taxes etc. on top of the above pricing (which can vary even between cities).

Ting uses Sprint as the primary carrier, but voice/text (not, however, data) roams to Verizon at no cost -- so coverage is very good for voice/text.

So, for 100 minutes a month on one feature phone, the upfront cost is $100 and $9/month thereafter (plus taxes/regulatory fees) - that's cheaper than landlines where I live (esp. if one makes any long domestic long distance calls which, of course, are no charge on the Ting plan).

Have you looked at Ting? The folks from Tucows have gone into the prepaid cell market. Buy a phone ($300-500 for Android, $65 for basic flip phone), then get refunded for any unused minutes, text, or data each month. There's no need for any 50,000 minute plan when you know you're only going to need 100.

It's definitely worth looking into once my contract nears it's end.

PS, on that previous slashdot story somebody had favorably mentioned ting. Now that I look at it, it looks pretty good, the minimum charge per month (if you make no calls) is $6/mo, which is comparable to tracfone and less than other so-called pay-as-you-go plans (t-mobile is min. $15/mo and there's no data available on that plan). On the other hand they don't have a good selection of cheap phones like tracfone, so you're looking at $190 or more per phone before paying for the first month of service, ouch.

In the US, MVNO's such as Ting (and Republic Wireless if they ever get out of Beta) who use the "buy your phone, no contracts" model will likely force the "big guys" to offer this model in the end. I think the resulting transparency is attractive to many, though not all, customers.

Innovation in smartphones has been rapid in the past few years and people tend to want newer/faster/shinier more frequently in such an environment. However, as the feature/performance innovation curve flattens out a bit, I think people will be quite annoyed at effectively being "forced" into a new phone (since, once they are out of contract, they usually keep paying the same rate even though the phone subsidy is paid off) and a new contract when they are still quite happy with their existing phone -- especially because they usually still have to pay a substantial amount up front to get a new smartphone. I expect that many of these people will be quite receptive to looking for alternatives that prevent them from being trapped yet again.

Buy the phone up front.

Pay for your minutes.

You don't have to buy data or text messages unless you want to.

No contract.

You can quit any time.

up to 20 phones per account at $6 per phone per month.

Good selection of Android phones.

Uses the Sprint network.

Check it out.

Buy the phone up front.

Pay for your minutes.

You don't have to buy data or text messages unless you want to.

No contract.

You can quit any time.

up to 20 phones per account at $6 per phone per month.

Good selection of Android phones.

Uses the Sprint network.

Check it out.

Buy the phone up front.

Pay for your minutes.

You don't have to buy data or text messages unless you want to.

No contract.

You can quit any time.

up to 20 phones per account at $6 per phone per month.

Good selection of Android phones.

Uses the Sprint network.

Check it out.