I don't think you actually save any money on Ting. Their biggest data plan is 3000M for $55 (with no text messages and no phone service), compared with T-mobile's unlimited everything for $70. The innovation they offer is that if you don't use anything and know you never will, you only pay $6 a month. But then again, I could get you the complete lack of calling, data, and text for $0 a month. You don't even have to buy a phone.
Another very happy Ting.com customer here. We paid $150 a month for our 2 smartphones on Sprint. Now we pay $50 a month for both on Ting. Sure, we use wi-fi as much as possible. Our data use is 1gb per month. Could not be happier saving $100 a month!
I save a significant amount of money, but you're right that if you're a heavy mobile data user other plans might make more sense. I am not: less than 1K voice minutes, 1K texts, and 250MB data between 2 lines (~$800 up-front for pretty decent smartphones). I pay $35-50/month. And not having a contract is nice.
I would be remiss not to give them a huge amount of credit for their support staff. They really care about that. The only time I called in, a live person answered the phone after 1 or 2 rings and then proceeded to solve a somewhat technical problem without transferring me.
Anyway, I don't want to sound like a paid plug for them. But I like them a lot.
Disclaimer: I liked Ting enough to buy Tucows stock.
My experience with Ting as a customer has been excellent. Rates are great, flexible, and sensible. Customer service has been good. Flexibility with onboarding used and refurbished phones has been easy.
For about what I paid for voice and SMS on Verizon a year ago, we have two smartphones and a hotspot running both a person and some hardware across the country. My tightwad father's adopted the service (his first cell phone), and has since added another line.
T-mobile is starting to do the right things, but Ting already is.
A customer, not an employee. I won't gush, see ting.com, it's an MVNO on the Sprint network.
EDIT: It kind of bothers me that someone downvoted this. It's not like I used an affiliate link or stand to benefit from this. Sorry for sharing :P