Cricket Wireless

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Cricket Communications, Inc.
Type Private (subsidiary of Leap Wireless)
Industry Wireless Telecommunications
Founded 1999 (1999)
Headquarters 5887 Copley Drive San Diego, CA 92111, United States
Area served United States
Website mycricket.com

Cricket Communications, Inc., (d.b.a. Cricket Wireless) founded in 1999, provides wireless services to over 7 million customers in the United States.[1] The company is a subsidiary of Leap Wireless, utilizing its CDMA 1X, 1xEV-DO and LTE networks. Leap Wireless owns and operates the seventh largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States. The company recently launched the first Advanced Wireless Services network in Oklahoma City. The company also went nationwide with roaming agreements on March 23, 2010.[2] In August 2010, Leap Wireless and Sprint Nextel announced a five year agreement that allows Cricket Wireless to offer nationwide 3G service to its customers using Sprint's 3G network.[citation needed] In May 2012, Cricket became the first wireless provider to begin carrying the Apple Inc. iPhone available off-contract.

Contents

History [edit]

Typical Cricket retail store in Hillsboro, Oregon
 This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (November 2010)
  • Leap launched Cricket Wireless first market in Chattanooga, TN on March 17, 1999.[3]
  • 2003: Cricket's parent company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.[3]
  • 2004: Cricket's parent company emerged from bankruptcy.[4]
  • May 5, 2005: Cricket customers now have the option of roaming outside of their home market with "Travel Time".[5]
  • September 4, 2007: Competing carrier MetroPCS announced a $5.3 billion bid to merge with Leap Wireless .[6] Leap informally rejected the bid less than two weeks later.[7] MetroPCS officially withdrew the bid less than two months later, on November 1, 2007.[8]
  • September 17, 2007: Cricket launched Wireless Broadband Service using EV-DO.[9]
  • December 12, 2007: Cricket agreed to acquire Hargray Communications Group's wireless telecommunications business.[10]
  • April 8, 2008: Cricket launched in Oklahoma City, the first Advanced Wireless Services market in the United States.[11]
  • September 29, 2008: Cricket announced that they had entered into a 10 year roaming agreement with MetroPCS covering both companies' existing and future markets. The companies also entered into a spectrum exchange agreement covering licenses in certain markets, (with Leap acquiring an additional 10 MHz of spectrum in San Diego, Fresno, Seattle and certain other Washington and Oregon markets, and MetroPCS acquiring an additional 10 MHz of spectrum in Dallas-Ft. Worth, Shreveport-Bossier City, Lakeland-Winter Haven, Florida and certain other North Texas markets). The companies said that they have settled all outstanding litigation between them[12]
  • November 13, 2008: Cricket launched "Premium Extended Coverage", a roaming partnership with 14 wireless companies to provide Cricket customers with a larger unlimited cellular footprint.[13]
  • February 2009: Cricket launches in Chicago. Making it the biggest market to ever launch since Cricket was formed in 1999.[citation needed]
  • March 10, 2009: Cricket launches in the Philadelphia market, including suburbs such as Atlantic City, NJ and Wilmington, DE, with a market total of 6.3 million POPs.[14]
  • April 22, 2009: Cricket launches phone recycling program.[14]
  • June 23, 2009: Cricket launches in the Washington, DC and Baltimore markets[14]
  • August, 2009: Leap announces quarter 2 reports of 203,000 net customer additions and now have about 4.5 million customers.[14]
  • August 19, 2009: Cricket looking for federal grant for wireless broadband.[14]
  • September 3, 2009: Cricket introduces durable MOTO VE465.[14]
  • September 4, 2009: Merger talk starting back up for Leap, MetroPCS and rumored about AT&T Mobility .[14]
  • September 4, 2009: Cricket testing 10 GB/month broadband plan.[14]
  • September 17, 2009: Cricket to integrate monthly plans into PAYGo.[14]
  • September 23, 2009: Cricket releases low-priced CAPTR.[14]
  • September 28, 2009: Cricket upgrades domain name. (mycricket.com)[14]
  • October 1, 2009: Cricket PAYGo headed to Target.[14]
  • October 29, 2009: Cricket adds LG Helix to handset lineup.[14]
  • November 2, 2009: Cricket adds text messaging option to $1 PAYGo plan.[14]
  • November 5, 2009: Cricket adds $25 plan to compete with MetroPCS 30 dollar plan.[14]
  • November 5, 2009: Cricket sees slow growth in subscribers; they added 116,000 subscribers and now have 4.65 million subscribers.[14]
  • February 1, 2010: Leap announced that it was exploring a sale of the company to a larger rival. Talks have been held with Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility.[15]
  • April 13, 2010: Cricket launched Cricket Navigator, a GPS application that offers audible turn-by-turn navigation, hyper-local search and maps.[16]
  • August 2010: Cricket and Sprint signed a five year wholesale agreement (MVNO) that allows Cricket to utilize Sprint's 3G network throughout the U.S. As part of the agreement, Cricket made commitments to deliver minimum levels of revenues to Sprint. Cricket will offer products and services using Sprint's 3G network coverage throughout August 2015.
  • August 12, 2010: Cricket launched operator for the Kyocera Rio low cost touch phone.[17]
  • July 7, 2011: Cricket hits 7 million customers, and 100k muve music subscribers
  • January 2012: Cricket's Muve Music exceeds 500,000 customers in less than one year, becoming the second largest digital music subscription service in the US.
  • January 2012: Cricket Huawei Mercury is named best prepaid phone of all time by PC Magazine.
  • May 31, 2012: Cricket announces the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will be available on its network, becoming the first pre-paid carrier in the United States to offer an iPhone. The iPhone 4 and 4S were released on June 25.[18]
  • On September 5, 2012, electronic retailer RadioShack in partnership with Cricket Wireless, launched RadioShack No Contract Wireless service powered by Cricket, the service launched with multiple rebranded Cricket handsets from Huawei including an exclusive white Huawei Mercury Ice and also a feature phone the Huawei Pillar.
  • On November 14, 2012, Cricket launched the 'LG Optimus Regard', its first 4G LTE smartphone available to customers in select Cricket home-markets.
  • On November 25, 2012, Cricket began offering its second 4G LTE capable high-end smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S III, available in select markets.

Plans and device offerings [edit]

Plans

Cricket offers a variety of plans that depend on the type of device and which market in which it will be used. Viewing what is available in each area may be accessed by going on Cricket's website (mycricket.com) and entering your Zip Code.

Smartphones

In 2010, Cricket announced the debut of two new Android smartphones to their wireless lineup. The Sanyo Zio (Zi-O) by Kyocera is Cricket and Kyocera's first Android phone. The phone runs on Cricket's 3G EVDO network, and has Wi-Fi capabilities. It currently utilizes Android 2.2.[19] which is anticipated to be available in January or February 2011. The other available smartphone is the Blackberry Curve 8530, which will work on Cricket's EVDO network.

Since the release of these phones, Cricket has added the Huawei Ascend which runs Android 2.1. It is the lowest-priced Android phone without a contract.[20] Another Android smartphone available with the telecom operator is LG Optimus C.[21] The Samsung Indulge has been available since the 7th June[22]

Muve Music [edit]

Muve Music is a music service from Cricket. Available on the all Android devices on Cricket and RadioShack No contract Wireless, the Muve Music application lets users browse and download millions of songs. Cricket currently has contracts with Sony, Universal Music, Warner Music, and EMI. Unlimited Anytime minutes, Unlimited text, data (throttled after 1 GB), and Unlimited music downloads is available starting at $50/mo. on Android smartphones.

Coverage area [edit]

Cricket subscribers are covered in about 95% of the United States using home network and roaming agreements with Sprint Nextel and MetroPCS among other CDMA carriers, and has mobile broadband coverage in most major metropolitan areas. Cricket's 3G service uses Sprint's nationwide EVDO network. Cricket also began offering 4G LTE service and devices to customers in a couple of select home-markets.

Activations

Cricket can activate new phones for customers located outside of their home area.[citation needed]

Data throttling [edit]

Cricket offers a variety of plans that include data from $35 to $65 a month. While Cricket service is advertised as "unlimited," they do have a usage limit cap that varies by plan, with the option to purchase a limit increase in 1 GB increments which is call data add on.Cricket rate plans offer a variety of usage caps that varies by the needs of their customers,they offer a $35 data plan that provides 2 GB,$45 that provides 4 GB and a $65 that provides 8 GB on full data however this usage limits caps are for their 3G network, with their 4G network which is available in certain areas they have an unlimited data plan as low as $80 per month Exceeding the cap results in reduced data speed (throttling), possibly as low as 56k (dialup) speeds. Cricket measures the data allowance per day on a 30-day billing cycle, so even if a user exceeds their limit, normal speed will be restored on the next billing cycle.[citation needed]

RadioShack No Contract Wireless [edit]

On September 5, 2012, RadioShack, in a partnership with Cricket, began offering its own branded wireless service using Cricket's nationwide network. RadioShack No Contract Wireless offers the exact same rate plans and services as Cricket. Although RadioShack offers and markets, product packaging and other aspects under its own brand, little changes are actually made on the smartphones themselves as most services on them are still branded Cricket.

See also [edit]

References [edit]

  1. ^ "Company Information | Cricket Wireless". Mycricket.com. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  2. ^ "Cricket expands network to cover more of the country". Prepaid Reviews. 2010-03-23. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  3. ^ a b "About". Leap Wireless. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  4. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  5. ^ "Wireless Phone Services | Wireless Communications | Leap Wireless - Press Releases". Mycricket.com. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  6. ^ Humer, Caroline (2007-09-04). "MetroPCS bids $5.3 billion for Leap Wireless". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-05-09. 
  7. ^ "Leap Rejects MetroPCS Merger Offer". TheStreet.com. 2007-09-16. Retrieved 2008-05-09. 
  8. ^ Dano, Mike (2007-11-01). "Metro ditches bid for Leap". RCR Wireless News. Retrieved 2008-05-09. 
  9. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. 2007-09-17. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  10. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  11. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  12. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  13. ^ "Leap Wireless - Media Relations - Press Release" (Press release). Phx.corporate-ir.net. 2008-11-13. Retrieved 2009-08-27. 
  14. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p "Cricket Wireless News and Coverage". Prepaid Reviews. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  15. ^ Mccracken, Jeffrey; Sheth, Niraj (February 2, 2010). "Leap Wireless Seeks a Buyer". The Wall Street Journal. 
  16. ^ "Cricket Launches New Navigation Solution". Business Wire. 2010-04-20. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  17. ^ Kyocera Rio E3100 Coming Soon!, PhoneWebZ
  18. ^ Moren, Dan (May 31, 2012). "Prepaid carrier Cricket leaps onto iPhone scene". Macworld. Retrieved May 31, 2012. 
  19. ^ Motorola il iDEN (2010-08-21). "Android-powered Sanyo ZIO by Kyocera now available on Cricket". Intomobile.com. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  20. ^ "prepaid smart phones | smartphones | Cricket Wireless". Mycricket.com. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  21. ^ Gaurav Shukla (2011-10-06). "Cricket Wireless launches LG Optimus C for USD 130". AndroidOS.in. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 
  22. ^ Cha, Bonnie (2011-06-07). "Samsung Indulge now available at Cricket Wireless | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews". Reviews.cnet.com. Retrieved 2011-10-10. 

External links [edit]
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