{"id":646833,"date":"2013-03-14T13:42:02","date_gmt":"2013-03-14T17:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=620567"},"modified":"2013-03-14T13:42:02","modified_gmt":"2013-03-14T17:42:02","slug":"samsung-isnt-playing-favorites-mvno-ting-will-get-the-galaxy-s-4-right-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/646833","title":{"rendered":"Samsung isn\u2019t playing favorites: MVNO Ting will get the Galaxy S 4 right away"},"content":{"rendered":"

Samsung hasn\u2019t even officially unveiled its new flagship Galaxy S 4 yet, but one carrier is already announcing it will carry it. No, it\u2019s not AT&T or Verizon or Vodafone. It\u2019s Tucows\u2019 tiny mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) Ting.<\/p>\n

Ting said Thursday that it would be among the first in line to sell Samsung\u2019s latest and greatest smartphone — which it coyly said is \u201ccommonly referred to as the Galaxy S4\u201d — as soon as it is commercially available. (For all of the details of the official S 4 launch Thursday evening starting at 7pm ET (4pm PT), check out my colleague Kevin Tofel\u2019s live blog<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\u201cIn advance of Samsung\u2019s big launch event tomorrow, we\u2019re excited to say that we\u2019ll be able to offer the follow up to the Samsung Galaxy S3, which we\u2019ll call the Samsung Galaxy S 4 unless we\u2019re provided reason to do otherwise,\u201d Tucows Content Development Manager Andrew Moore-Crispin wrote in Tucows\u2019 blog Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cWhat\u2019s more, we\u2019ll be able to do so at around the same time as the major carriers; on or at least around the actual launch day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Galaxy<\/a>That\u2019s quite a coup for Ting, since MVNOs typically have to wait months — if not forever — to become official retailers of the hottest mobile devices. Not only do MVNOs have to court handset vendors that often have cozy relationships with the big carriers, but they also have to get permission from their carrier partners<\/a>. In Ting\u2019s case, Sprint provides it network access and ultimately it gets to decide whether Ting or any other Sprint MVNO gets to sell the same devices in its portfolio.<\/p>\n

In the last year, though, carriers and Sprint in particular have loosened the leashes on their MVNOS<\/a>, giving them access to goodies like hot devices and new 4G networks they would normally reserve for themselves. Ting became the first LTE MVNO<\/a> in August, tapping into Sprint\u2019s brand new 4G service shortly after it launched, and it only had to wait to two months before it could sell the Galaxy S3<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Even more recently those market barriers hindering MVNOs fell further. MVNO Solavei got an early drop on U.S. carriers<\/a> by becoming the first operator to sell the BlackBerry(BBRY) Z10. Ting\u2019s early access to the Galaxy S 4 is another example that MVNOs no longer have to put up with the big carriers\u2019 scraps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:<\/strong>
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n