Holy moly! Cricket just increased data caps & now have a 20GB (!!!) plan for $55/mo

[Hal~9000]

Capped at 8mbps

8mbps is very fast and more than enough for web surfing, app downloads, and quality streaming. Only people that need to get an erection over speedtest results would actually say they need more.

No tethering allowed

Cricket customers on HowardForums seem to tether just fine without any issues.

No customer service

This is nonsense and clearly shows a lack of knowledge about Cricket as they have a 1-800 customer service # & online chat + physical retail stores.

No family plans

Again, nonsense. There are group plan discounts up to $100 off per month for families wanting a discount for having multiple lines on the same account.

Downgrade to AT&T's congested network

LoL.

Second tier priority on the network

Not that this even has any real world effect on prepaid customers but this is clearly grasping at straws for anything possible to try and feel better about ones current carrier. I'd rather be a 2nd tier customer on a quality network (ATT/Verizon) than 1st tier on a crappy one (T-mobile/Sprint).

No thanks.

Whew! This makes me happy

 

[617aircav]

Capped at 8mbps

No tethering allowed

No customer service

No family plans

Downgrade to AT&T's congested network

Second tier priority on the network



No thanks.

It's not for everyone but when I had it it was great. Not everyone needs tethering by the way. I have it on T-Mobile and have not used it in months.

 

[Apple Trees]

8mbps is very fast and more than enough for web surfing, app downloads, and quality streaming. Only people that need to get an erection over speedtest results would actually say they need more.



Cricket customers on HowardForums seem to tether just fine without any issues.



This is nonsense and clearly shows a lack of knowledge about Cricket as they have a 1-800 customer service # & online chat + physical retail stores.



Again, nonsense. There are group plan discounts up to $100 off per month for families wanting a discount for having multiple lines on the same account.



LoL.



Not that this even has any real world effect on prepaid customers but this is clearly grasping at straws for anything possible to try and feel better about ones current carrier. I'd rather be a 2nd tier customer on a quality network (ATT/Verizon) than 1st tier on a crappy one (T-mobile/Sprint).



Whew! This makes me happy

-Illegal tethering isn't a good way to try to make your point. Their plans be default do NOT allow tethering. Breaking your carrier's ToS to tether is not something you should encourage people to do.

- Yes they technically have customer service, it's just at the bottom of the barrel when compared to tier one service providers like Verizon and AT&T proper. Agents in Colombia and India who can barely speak English don't qualify. Nor do their retail locations in impoverished areas with shady managers.

- Yes AT&T's network is inferior to Verizon's. Then Cricket is second tier AT&T service. "Lol" my point remains.

- You're aiming your comment at the wrong person. I don't use a second tier provider like Sprint or T-Mobile and I also don't use second rate AT&T service. I'm on the Verizon network, the one that has LTE almost everywhere and is faster than even AT&T proper in most cities. Their network is already congested for their own customers, how do you think the second tier Cricket users on their network will fair?

If it works for you then that's great. I just gave you the reasons why I won't consider leaving Verizon for a lesser network among other things stated above just to save a couple of dollars.

 

[2298754]

This is a no brainer for those who don't need faster data speeds that post-paid customers want. Such a good price.

I'd switch to this in a heartbeat... instead of going TMo or Sprint.

 

[617aircav]

This is a no brainer for those who don't need faster data speeds that post-paid customers want. Such a good price.



I'd switch to this in a heartbeat... instead of going TMo or Sprint.

Yep. I'm on T-Mobile paying $65 for unlimited and international roaming which I will need. This is a good deal though.

 

[poorcody]

These prices for Cricket (and other pre-paid services)... do they include all the taxes and fees that you get on the big carriers?

 

[Rayfire]

These prices for Cricket (and other pre-paid services)... do they include all the taxes and fees that you get on the big carriers?

The $60 (or $55 with autopay discount) already includes all taxes/fees, so you'll really end up paying $60, unlike a postpaid plan where you have to fork more $ than your actual plan cost.

 

[Natzoo]

I should've got t-mobile when the unlimited plan was 50 dollars, but i guess I'm stuck with 3gb of at&t.

 

[andyx3x]

I'm seriously thinking about moving from T-Mobile to the $30 plan at Cricket. I rarely need over 1gb of data. And I get tired of getting no service from time to time on T-Mobile's network.

As for the 8mbps cap, that's perfectly OK. As has been said, you really only need more if you're having a dick swinging speedtest contest with your friends.

 

[Spectrum Abuser]

Capped at 8mbps
No tethering allowed
No customer service
No family plans
Downgrade to AT&T's congested network
Second tier priority on the network

No thanks.

It's a phone plan.
It's a phone plan.
There's a customer service number right on the website.
They give discounts for multiple lines.
AT&T seems pretty good in my neck of the woods. 30Mbps on LTE.
No one is complaining other than you.

 

[Beelzbub]

This will sound stupid, but will MMS on an iPhone 3GS work on Cricket? Because it currently does not on Straight Talk, customer service says you have to have an iPhone running iOS 7 or above. So I was curious if anyone out there on Cricket uses an iPhone 3GS and has any problems.

I know, it is an old phone, but it is what my father is currently using, and he bought a Straight Talk SIM card for it and everything works fine, just not MMS.

I am trying to steer them towards Cricket due to the lower price per month.

 

[iamMacPerson]

Sorry, gang, still going to disagree on speed. I've had both in the last few months--typically I got 6-8 Mbps on AT&T, and 25-50 on T-Mobile. There's no contest. Pages that would take near a minute to load on the phone when I was on AT&T absolutely FLY now that I'm on TM

Uh, you sure about that? When I had my iPhone 4 I'd consider it good coverage to get .5Mbps on Verizon 3G (which is dog slow CDMA). With that speed I could load most pages in under 30 seconds. To say that 8Mbps is slow and takes a minute to load a page seems grossly exaggerated unless the pages you are trying to load are on servers with a very slow upload speed or are constantly slammed. Hell when I still had DSL a few years ago (2Mbps down and .7Mbps up) I could stream a 480p YouTube video with no problem.

8Mbps for that price is not bad. Technically its a better deal then the plan I have with Verizon but VZWs coverage is still the best from my testing, and I will continue to stick with them for the foreseeable future. If they piss me off though, Cricket could have a new customer. The speeds I get on Verizon XLTE are ridiculously fast though. The slowest I have seen them in town is 13Mbps but I average 30-35 with a peak at 70-80Mbps download.

 

[Member2010]

Clarification on the topic

-Illegal tethering isn't a good way to try to make your point. Their plans be default do NOT allow tethering. Breaking your carrier's ToS to tether is not something you should encourage people to do.

Lol, what's "illegal tethering" ?

- Yes AT&T's network is inferior to Verizon's. Then Cricket is second tier AT&T service.

Barely.

 

[JuliusCaesar]

Good question. T-Mo unlimited plan allows for 5gb of tethered data at no cost. AT&T usually charges for tethering so it would be curious if Cricket allows it for free?

They don't allow tethering unfortunately, that's about the only negative thing I see about their service, and the 8 mbps limit. But happy to be paying 35 dollars with a iPhone 6.

 

[Retired Cat]

Capped at 8mbps

Downgrade to AT&T's congested network

Second tier priority on the network

Has anyone tested Cricket access to the AT&T network against direct AT&T service?

If the ping times are about the same, it should make no difference to most people. 8mbps is plenty fast for web pages and most apps. Large downloads and tethering are mostly what would use bandwidth that is higher.

 

[madsci954]

Has anyone tested Cricket access to the AT&T network against direct AT&T service?

If the ping times are about the same, it should make no difference to most people. 8mbps is plenty fast for web pages and most apps. Large downloads and tethering are mostly what would use bandwidth that is higher.

I was on AT&T before moving to Cricket. The differences in between call quality, signal strength, and data speeds were negligible in my comparisons.

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

There's a reason Cricket is so cheap and generous with data. The service uses a different APN than postpaid/GoPhone and it's very noticeable due to higher pings and really low DL/UL speeds. Just because they throttle at 8 Mbps doesn't mean you'll get it regularly.

 

[617aircav]

There's a reason Cricket is so cheap and generous with data. The service uses a different APN than postpaid/GoPhone and it's very noticeable due to higher pings and really low DL/UL speeds. Just because they throttle at 8 Mbps doesn't mean you'll get it regularly.

Like others have said, most peope won't notice the difference. I didn't when I went from Att to cricke

 

[three]

I'm currently with Sprint and have about 6 months left on my contract. Despite LTE, and the improvements made with that, I know that I am leaving once my contract is up. I've been researching the other major carriers in the area, and have been asking co-workers and friends, and they seem to agree that AT&T and Verizon are the best in the area. Ideally I'd love to not sign another contract and deal with that, but we'll see. I love T-Mobile and everything that they're doing, but their coverage simply sucks in my area and it'd be a downgrade from the crap (Sprint) I deal with now. Cricket has came to my attention. With seeing the recently upgraded plans and knowing that AT&T has decent coverage in my area, I'm tempted. I understand the capped data (8 Mbps) but all I want is decent data speeds at work for browsing the internet in down time. Attached are the speeds I get with Sprint at work. It's unusable. Anyways I'm just thinking out loud right now. I'm hoping that with the newly purchased 700mhz spectrum, T-Mobile's performance will skyrocket in my area.

 

[lordofthereef]

I'm having some trouble understanding their their multiple line discounts. Is $5 autopay per line? Is the discount they list per additional line or is it for the entire bill? (Ie with three lines would I get $10 off line two and $20 off line three, or just $20 off total bill? I might consider doing this especially if the $10 and $20 discounts apply along with $5 per line for auto pay. I could snag two 20gb and one 5g lines for less than I'm laying to share 15gb among three lines. I'd probably give it a trial run before committing just to make sure I could deal with the speeds.

 

[2298754]

Has anyone tested Cricket access to the AT&T network against direct AT&T service?

If the ping times are about the same, it should make no difference to most people. 8mbps is plenty fast for web pages and most apps. Large downloads and tethering are mostly what would use bandwidth that is higher.

Pings are not the same. Not to mention, Cricket data traffic goes through a separate proxy, which is how AT&T is able to limit the speeds down to 8mbps

 

[MkVsTheWorld]

Like others have said, most peope won't notice the difference. I didn't when I went from Att to cricke

It also largely depends on where you live too. Over on HowardForums, some people report Speedtests where they're barely getting dial-up speeds before the throttle and then there's some folks that are consistently getting 8Mbps/acceptable pings. If you depend on data and Cricket doesn't work in your area, then I recommend using GoPhone and getting refills via Callingmart; you get less data but get a much better experience.

 

[lordofthereef]

Pings are not the same. Not to mention, Cricket data traffic goes through a separate proxy, which is how AT&T is able to limit the speeds down to 8mbps

So much for this being the answer to lowering the phone bill. I get what I pay for I guess lol.

 

[Member2010]

Carrier performance

I'm currently with Sprint and have about 6 months left on my contract. Despite LTE, and the improvements made with that, I know that I am leaving once my contract is up. I've been researching the other major carriers in the area, and have been asking co-workers and friends, and they seem to agree that AT&T and Verizon are the best in the area. Ideally I'd love to not sign another contract and deal with that, but we'll see. I love T-Mobile and everything that they're doing, but their coverage simply sucks in my area and it'd be a downgrade from the crap (Sprint) I deal with now. Cricket has came to my attention. With seeing the recently upgraded plans and knowing that AT&T has decent coverage in my area, I'm tempted. I understand the capped data (8 Mbps) but all I want is decent data speeds at work for browsing the internet in down time. Attached are the speeds I get with Sprint at work. It's unusable. Anyways I'm just thinking out loud right now. I'm hoping that with the newly purchased 700mhz spectrum, T-Mobile's performance will skyrocket in my area.

Wow, I haven't seen data that slow on Sprint since 2012. Your area must be way behind the ball on upgrades because they've shot up to 1-2Mbps where I live on the 3G. You made the right choice not switching to TMobile though. Maybe they have a hundredMbps download speed, but what good is it if you can't ever use it? Slow data in some places > no service at all in most places.

Your best bet would be to go with one of the ATnT prepaids (like Cricket or StraightTalk) or wait until Sprint gets its act together in your area.

 

[three]

Wow, I haven't seen data that slow on Sprint since 2012. Your area must be way behind the ball on upgrades because they've shot up to 1-2Mbps where I live on the 3G. You made the right choice not switching to TMobile though. Maybe they have a hundredMbps download speed, but what good is it if you can't ever use it? Slow data in some places > no service at all in most places.

Your best bet would be to go with one of the ATnT prepaids (like Cricket or StraightTalk) or wait until Sprint gets its act together in your area.

They've got LTE (where I often get 60 mbps down) across most of the area but there are pockets (like my work) where it simply doesn't cover. It's a bummer, as the LTE is fast but the Sprint 3G is non-existent. We're thinking the same thing, AT&T or a prepaid of AT&T is the way to go.