Sprint plans to shut off RingPlus, RingPlus sues Sprint

[ahecht]

Looks like Sprint finally got fed up with RingPlus not paying their bills, and after cutting off their ability to activate new users a few days ago, they have now announced that they are discontinuing all service to RingPlus customers on February 11th. RingPlus is suing to stop the shutoff as a hail mary.

 

The text of the lawsuit was posted to reddit in this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/RingPlus/comments/5rwphy/ringplus_files_suit_against_sprint_with/

 

Some of the more interesting tidbits:

• RingPlus claims to own a patent on using custom music instead of a ringing noise when making outgoing calls. They licensed it to Sprint for Sprint's "Music Plus" feature.
• RingPlus claims that their free ad-supported plans were a joint venture between them and Sprint.
• RingPlus claims that Sprint intentionally built a crappy cell network and then offered consumer discounts and promotions just to drive RingPlus out of business.
• RingPlus has been unable to pay their bills, but Sprint let them stall for 8 months before deciding to cut them off.

Reading between the lines, it seems more likely that Sprint just offered RingPlus a discount on MVNO fees in exchange for the patent license, not that it was a joint venture.

Edited February 4, 2017 by ahecht

[Arysyn]

Sure seems the anti-Sprint trolls are in full force over there at Reddit. They're probably missing their old home on Fierce, without all the Sprint bashing articles to reply to using the old Disqus.

[irev210]

No surprise here - no way that business model was sustainable.

 

I got over a year of free service on a few lines, saved probably close to 1000 bux.

 

Crappy service, unrealistic data allotments, and a bunch of other issues made this inevitable.  It was a fun train while it lasted.

[Rawvega]

http://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/ringplus-customers-to-migrate-to-ting-as-service-shuts-down