Ting has attracted many customers with its low-cost, pay-for-what-you-use tier-based approach to mobile service (give me a second, I'm sure I could fit more hyphens into this sentence), but some have been put off by the company's reliance on the Sprint network. Starting February 2015, folks will have a choice. Ting will start offering a GSM option for people who just want to pop a SIM card into their existing unlocked phone.

To be clear, Ting isn't severing its relationship with Sprint. GSM will appear as a separate option, with customers able to have both GSM and CDMA lines under a single account, where they utilize the same pool of minutes, texts, and data. Ting hasn't said which GSM carrier's network it's relying on, but its coverage map paints a picture that looks awfully similar to one we've seen drawn by T-Mobile. This would provide a clear reason to hold on to Ting's existing CDMA network, as T-Mobile is strong in cities but weak in less populated areas, while Sprint has a tendency towards the opposite.

Ting already offers Sprint SIM cards for Nexus devices priced at $9. Future GSM cards will likely go for around the same, with the cost of service remaining consistent across the two options.

Source: Ting