New MVNO US Mobile Is the Ting of GSM Network

US Mobile

The phone retailer GSM Nation, known for re-selling unlocked GSM phones, has decided to dip their feet into the MVNO (mobile virtual network operator) business with their new US Mobile brand. This new wireless provider is being marketed as a cheap cell phone plan with a tiered rate structure similar to that of Ting.

While similar, the main difference between US Mobile and Ting is that while Ting runs off of the CDMA Sprint network, US Mobile runs off of a GSM network which is speculated to be either T-Mobile or AT&T. Regardless, they say that most GSM enabled phones should work with their service.

US Mobile’s rate structure is also similar to Ting, where wireless customers only pay for what they use according to different tier limits on minutes, texts, and data. For example, if you were to use less than 100 minutes, less than 100 texts, and less than 100 MB of data in a month, you would only pay $11 for that month. The lowest tier levels used in this example have the following rates of $3 for up to 100 minutes, $2 for up to 100 texts, and $4 for up to 100 MB of data. There is also a $2 monthly service charge per account.

You can see the US Mobile tiered rate structure below:

US Mobile Rates

Now if we compare this to the Ting rates below, you’ll see some similarities but a few slight one dollar decreases and increases depending on what is being used.

Ting rate plan

As we can see there are strong similarities between both rate structures. Although US Mobile seems to have decreased its pricing on text messaging while increasing price rates on data usage. This makes sense from a practical business sense since text messages are the cheapest form of data transmission for any wireless carrier.

This is a very interesting new MVNO to come on the market and frankly I’m surprised that no one thought of creating a similar business model to Ting using the GSM network sooner; it almost seems like a no-brainer. It also makes perfect sense for the parent company, GSM Nation, considering that they are already in the GSM phone selling service, so it is certainly complimentary to their existing business.

While this MVNO is still quite new, I’ll be keeping my eye on them, and likely will do a US Mobile review in the near future once we have seen what their first customers have to say about their cheap mobile phone plans.

If anyone reading decides to try US Mobile, please get in touch with me either through my contact form or in the comments below, I’d love to hear about your experience with this service.

5 comments

  1. I’ve heard a little about Ting, but this is the first I’ve heard of US Mobile; and these two options appear to be less expensive then my daughters Airvoice Wireless plan (and with more data). I’m going to put this bug in her ear, because I know she wants to save more money.

    For me it has been difficult to find this information online, now I’ll just come directly to your site for the info. I wonder if other people stick with AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon because they just don’t know the other options, or because of habit.

    1. Hi Chris,

      They could possibly be cheaper than Airvoice depending on what her average usage is like, but probably worth looking into. I assume the iPhone she has now on Airvoice is a GSM phone, which means you could bring that to the US Mobile service without having to get a new device, otherwise if you went with Ting you’d need to get a Sprint compatible CDMA phone.

      I’m glad you found the information on the site useful, I’m doing my best to keep it updated while adding useful resources for those wanting to save money on their phone plans. Fortunately for us consumers, the wireless wars are really heating up with lots of competition and cheaper and cheaper prices 🙂

  2. I have just heard of US Mobile, Ultra Mobile, & Lycamobile, so am checking our reviews and trying to find user reviews out there. I’m planning on buying an unlocked phone from Amazon, and then trying to find cheap cell phone service. I’m a low-end user, and never get on the internet on my current TracFone as the browser is the worst! I have been a TracFone user for at least 20 years and am now going to wade into the smart phone waters! My kids are thrilled. Thank you for your review and I look forward to hearing more about this new MVNO company.

  3. I bought unlocked Moto G 1st Gen phone from Amazon. Got SIM card from US Mobile, put in phone followed APN settings from their website and phone wouldn’t get cell service. After 19 emails to US Mobile, they sent new SIM Card, but by then I had contacted my son and he came and looked at the phone and said it did work. I don’t know what happened, but since I’m a new Smart Phone user it could have been me not knowing what to do. It worked great on Wifi, but crappy cell service in one room of the house, not others. Since then the phone upgraded from 4.4 Kitkat to 5.0 Jellybean, and today 5.1 Jellybean. Since those upgrades the phone works great. Although I have only sent 4 texts, US Mobile has me down to 7 texts left out of 100 -weird. I have used have of the 100 minutes and have of the 250MB of data. They are very responsive through email, but don’t answer the phone at all. They are very new since March 2015. If I have problems in month 2, I will change to TING.com as their service is around the same amount even though you have to pay $6 for each device you activate with them. I can always go back to US Mobile if I don’t like Ting.

  4. In case people don’t know, Ting now offers GSM (T-Mobile MVNO) as well as CDMA networks. They also have the capability to switch between networks if you have a dual network phone.

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