FONA800 with Ting SIM ping prob(say that 5 times ;-)

The ping time is running regularly in the 500mS plus range over several days. I’ve got good signal on Tmobile. Its not a big deal in terms of my app but it’s causing disconnect notices every few seconds that i can not shut off and they are piling up so that i have to verify them all before i can move on. Anoying.
I’ve rolled the development back to an ethernet card but ultimately id like to use the GMRS as the com link
It’s an Adafruit FONA 800 Shield runing on a Mega 2560. Yes, i tried to turn off the disconnect notification, no affect.

Thanks in advance!
Jim-