Android Police

Dish acquires Ting Mobile to help create its new wireless network

Dish will work with Ting's parent company to manage its network empire

Ting has been a popular MVNO carrier for years for folks who doesn't use their phones very much. Much like Google Fi, the network's pricing is oriented towards people who are close to Wi-Fi most of the time, but Ting does stand out with its choice of multiple networks to choose from (it added Verizon just this year). Dish today announced that it has acquired Ting's customer base, and will use Ting's parent company to kickstart its new carrier operation.

Dish is the company that acquired Boost Mobile (a former MVNO of Sprint) and limited access to T-Mobile's network earlier this year, as part of the approval process required for T-Mobile's merger with Sprint. Dish has now purchased Ting Mobile from its former parent company, Tucows, further boosting its customer base. "Effective August 1, 2020, most Ting Mobile customers across the U.S. became customers of DISH," a press release said.

Dish says that Ting subscribers will "continue to use their current phones and will enjoy the same rates and excellent customer experience," and the press release confirmed that access to T-Mobile's network will remain in place. However, it's not clear what will happen to the option for Verizon-backed SIM cards — Ting only told Android Police that it will announce specific details about that "soon."

The deal isn't entirely about acquiring Ting Mobile's customers, though. Dish is also partnering with Ting's now-former parent company, Tucows, to power its retail wireless business. Tucows will soon run the back-end operations of Dish's new network empire, which definitely seems like a smart move — it already has experience managing multiple networks thanks to Ting Mobile.

UPDATE: 2020/08/03 1:05pm PDT BY CORBIN DAVENPORT

This article previously stated that Ting was dropping the option for Verizon SIM cards, but the company has only said it will reveal more details about its network options soon. The errors in the article have been corrected, and we apologize for any confusion.

Source: GlobeNewswire