Ting doesn't really look like a good deal except for extremely low usage, like for a secondary phone or if you do everything connected to wifi and not using mob

Ting doesn't really look like a good deal except for extremely low usage, like for a secondary phone or if you do everything connected to wifi and not using mobile talk or text. 1 line = $6, 1-100 minutes = $3, 1-100 texts = $3, 101-500MB = $10. Total, with that low usage, is $22/mo with Ting. Compare against some cheap MVNO like Mint Mobile where you can get unlimited talk and text, 3GB 4G for $20/mo prepaid for 6 months, or $15/mo prepaid for 1 year. Which is very similar to T-Mobile Connect (their new prepaid thing). I don't know if "T-Mobile Connect" is technically a separate entity that's a MVNO running on T-Mobile's network, or whether it's a genuine 1st class service on T-Mobile's network. Even if T-Mobile Connect is a MVNO, I would probably choose it if I were reevaluating plans today, except... the last time I used T-Mobile's website it was horrible, and Mint's is very simple and clean. Google Fi would be more, but if you go over 100 minutes or 100 texts, the Ting price goes up, while the Fi price is unchanged. More than some cheap MVNO, but Google Fi has some special features that might make that worthwhile for some people.