Ting becomes first MVNO carrier with access to LTE
A couple week ago, we told you that Sprint MVNO Ting was making history by being the first MVNO to actually advertise that it would allow you to bring your own Sprint device to its service – this includes any and all CDMA Sprint phones, except the iPhone, Blackberry devices, and new Sprint DirectConnect phones.
Now, Ting is again making headlines by being the first MVNO to take advantage of a 4G LTE network; namely, Sprint’s LTE network. Granted, Sprint LTE has a relatively small footprint at this point, but Sprint still hopes to have most of its existing 3G coverage area blanketed in LTE by the end of next year. This means that, if you purchase a Sprint phone like the HTC EVO 4G LTE, the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, or the Samsung Galaxy S III – and you somehow get out of your contract – you could bring that same device over to Ting and potentially save quite a bit of money each month, while still getting access to those same LTE speeds you previously enjoyed from Sprint directly.
All-in-all, not too shabby. My only concern with this news is this: if Sprint starts opening up its LTE network to any old MVNO that asks for it, how will this affect current postpaid subscribers? I’m fairly convinced that a big part of Sprint’s current 3G woes are due in no small part to the multitude of prepaid carriers that share the same airwaves with Sprint postpaid customers. I’d hate to see the same slowdown happen on 4G.
Going forward, I believe that Sprint is going to have to thread with care. If Network Vision and 4G LTE turn out to not be as big of an improvement as Sprint is currently touting, then Sprint will have created the perfect recipe for disaster.
[GigaOM]
