Cricket is not exactly a home name in wireless providers. Compared to Verizon, AT & T, Sprint and T-Mobile, they are small fry. But if you love a lot of typical phone users and live in the market they serve, Cricket can be a good choice for cordless phones and data services. Cricket has focused on providing much lower prices to customers who make and receive calls in their home region and give them buckets with an unlimited number of minutes.
Cricket may not be the best choice for business travelers. For them, a national carrier such as Sprint, Verizon and AT & T is likely to be better.
But it can be a great choice for a wide range of people who do not travel a lot, including crazy teenagers, college students, school teachers, nannies, parents in their homeland, small business owners who do not travel (think thousands of mom and pop music stores in your area) and many other typical mobile phone users.
If you want to turn off voice mail, you can get the service for only $ 30 a month for an unlimited number of minutes in your area. A more reasonable plan with messages for long distances, text and graphic messages, and voice mail - $ 40 per month.
Cricket does not have the terms of the contract and early payment fees. The disadvantage is that they do not do much to subsidize the cost of their phones.
A cover outside the home region (or “local coverage,” as cricket calls it) in other cricket markets can be added for $ 5 per month. Therefore, even if you are a business traveler, if your trips take you mainly to the markets served by Cricket and you live by phone, it can still be a very good choice. For example, if you live and work mainly in Chicago, but often travel to Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford and South Bend, Cricket can cover all these areas inexpensively, even if you speak a couple of hours a day (more than 3000 minutes a month)) your mobile phone.
Local cricket coverage areas
At the time of this writing, Cricket is offering win-win cordless phones and broadband services in these metro zones, covering most of the United States. Cricket refers to them as “local areas of coverage” to distinguish between perpetual customers with an unlimited lifespan, while in these areas, in comparison with roaming tariffs that apply when completely disconnected from the Cricket network. Local coverage areas also typically offer 3G wireless broadband services.
1. Alabama: Fort Mitchell, Phoenix City, Smits Station
2. Alaska: No Home Regions
3. Arizona: Phoenix, Tucson
4. Arkansas: Little Rock, Hot Springs, Pine Bluff, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Jonesboro
5. California: Fresno, Visalia, Modesto, Merced, San Diego
6. Colorado: Colorado Springs, Denver, Pueblo
7. Connecticutt: no home regions
8. Delaware: no home regions
9. District of Columbia (Washington, DC): there are no new regions yet?
10. Florida: Most of the state is covered by Premium Premium Coverage.
11. Georgia: Columbus, Macon, Savannah
12. Hawaii: no home regions
13. Idaho: Boise
14. Illinois: Chicago and its Suburbs, Rockford
15. Indiana: Gary, New Albany, South Bend, Indianapolis
16. Iowa: Bluff Council
17. Kansas: Kansas City, Wichita
18. Kentucky: Lexington, Louisville
19. Louisiana: Part of the state is covered by Premium Premium Coverage
20. Maine: no home regions
21. Maryland: no home regions
22. Massachusetts: no home regions
23. Michigan: Ann Arbor, Detroit, and some other areas covered by the Premium Extended Coverage Plan
24. Minnesota: no home regions
25. Mississippi: Olive Branch, Southhaven, Tunic
26. Missouri: Kansas City, St. Louis
27. Montana: no home regions
28. Nebraska: Lincoln, Omaha
29. Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks, Carson City
30. New Hampshire: No Home Regions
31. New Jersey: No Home Regions
32. New Mexico: Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe
33. New York: Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse
34. North Carolina: Burlington, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Greensboro, High Point, Winston Salem, Raleigh-Durham
35. North Dakota: No Home Regions
36. Ohio: Akron, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Dayton, Springfield, Toledo
37. Oklahoma: Tulsa, Oklahoma City
38. Oregon: Eugene, Salem, Portland
39. Pennsylvania: Philadelphia (coming soon), Pittsburgh
40. Rhode Island: no home regions
41. South Carolina: Beaufort, Charleston, Rock Hill
42. South Dakota: No Home Regions
43. Tennessee: Chattanooga, Knoxville, Memphis, Nashville, Clarksville
44. Texas: Austin, Bryan, College Station, Del Rio, Eagle Pass, El Paso, Houston, Killeen, McAllen, San Antonio, Seguin, Temple
45. Utah: Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden
46. Vermont: no home regions
47. Virginia: Some of the States Covered by the Premium Extended Coverage Plan
48. Washington: Spokane, Vancouver
49. West Virginia: New Cumberland, Welsburg
50. Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison
51. Wyoming: no home regions
The main areas not covered in fixed-rate coverage are sparsely populated areas, such as North and South Dakota, and large cities, such as New York and Los Angeles. It is difficult to make money in regions with a small number of people, so Cricket focused on larger markets. There was too much competition in some large markets, as the radio frequency spectrum licenses for these cities were expensive and largely tradable, so Cricket missed them. Cricket is not a good choice for professional use in these areas, since you are roaming there, but you can still get service.
For $ 5 a month, many areas are covered by Premium Premium Coverage and are moving from roaming minutes to unlimited fixed-rate coverage.
Bottom line
Ultimately, Cricket does not make much sense if you do not live and work in a local or premium extended coverage area. But if you do, it can be a good deal.
