Advertisement
It seems AT&T has finally awoken from a long slumber and has decided to more aggressively compete in the prepaid wireless market. AT&T's Cricket Wireless brand is now effectively matching two Total Wireless offers:
- 2 unlimited lines for $65/month
- 50% off an unlimited plan for BYOD customers, $25/month after all discounts
Cricket has also introduced a new $40/month no frills truly unlimited 5G data plan, which is what's eligible for the multi-line discount of 2 lines for $65/month. Both the $40 unlimited and 2 unlimited lines for $65 rate plans are being marketed with a free phone offer featuring the Samsung Galaxy A15 5G.
The $40 unlimited plan and phone offer are now live on the Cricket Wireless website.
$25/Month Unlimited Plan Offer Details
The 50% off unlimited plan offer for BYOD customers is available exclusively at Walmart and appears to be limited to their $55/month "Unlimited Plan."
This plan includes unlimited talk, text, and 5G data, 2GB cloud storage, unlimited texting from the USA to over 200 countries and territories, 480p video streaming, and Mexico and Canada usage. Mobile hotspot is available as an add-on priced at $10/month for 10GB.
The plan has deprioritized data speeds. This means that whenever the network is busy, your data speeds will slow down more when compared to customers that have a plan on the network with priority data included.
Plan eligibility requires you to be a new single line customer with your own phone and a Cricket Wireless Walmart SIM. Customers with a phone purchased from Cricket Wireless will be excluded from the deal. Subscribers that upgrade, add a line, or change plans will forfeit the 50% off monthly discount.
It's not clear if iPhone users can take advantage of this deal given that a Walmart SIM is required for it. Walmart does not offer Cricket eSIMs for purchase, at least online anyway. If you have an iPhone you might be able to get help with this from an in-store rep or by buying a physical SIM and having it converted to an eSIM.
This offer is scheduled to be available at least until 10/10/25.
Cricket $40/month, and 2 Lines for $65 Plan Details
The $40 plan is brand new from Cricket Wireless and is called "Simply Unlimited." It's about as basic as an unlimited plan as you can get. It includes unlimited talk, text, and 5G data and nothing else. Video streaming is limited to a resolution of 480p and data speeds are deprioritized. Taxes and fees are included.
Cricket's own plan details page suggests you cannot add any upgrades to this plan like you can with their other plans. It says hotspot, cloud storage, Cricket International, and Mexico and Canada usage are unavailable.
There are multi-month discounts to be claimed, but beyond two lines it would be pretty pointless to sign up with this plan. Here's the full pricing for customers with multiple lines:
- 2 lines for $65/month
- 3 lines for $90/month
- 4 lines for $100/month
Cricket's $55/month "Unlimited Plan," described under the previous heading, offers the same prices for 3 line and 4 line customers as this new "Simply Unlimited" plan. The "Unlimited Plan" comes with more features though making "Simply Unlimited" a bad deal for customers with 3 or more lines.
Editor's Take
It's about time Cricket Wireless has decided to catch up to the competition. They had fallen woefully behind other carrier-owned prepaid brand offers.
Last August, Verizon's Straight Talk Wireless brand launched a $25/month BYOD unlimited plan offer called "Straight Savings." Straight Talk Wireless is sold exclusively at Walmart. Now Cricket Wireless is able to directly compete against them in the store with a $25/month unlimited plan of their own.
Last September, Verizon's Total Wireless prepaid brand launched a 50% off BYOD promo that continues to run today. This allows potential customers to pick up a $25/month unlimited plan from that brand as well, and Cricket can now more effectively compete against it.
For a few years, Metro has also offered a $25/month unlimited plan to BYOD customers.
Cricket has half-heartedly been competing at the $25-$30/month price point since 2023. BestMVNO reported in August of that year that Cricket launched multi-month unlimited data savings plans. A truly unlimited high-speed data plan was made available to BYOD customers willing to shell out $360 in advance (average cost of $30/month) for it. The price was later dropped to $300 or an average of $25/month. It is still available for purchase today.
Earlier this month, BestMVNO reported that Total Wireless released a new offer of two unlimited lines for $65/month. Cricket is now clearly attacking that offer as well through price matching.
Cricket's new $40/month "Simply Unlimited" plan had to be launched out of necessity. Metro by T-Mobile, Total Wireless, Straight Talk, and Visible among others have been offering truly unlimited high-speed data plans around that price point. Cricket Wireless did not have a plan available that was competitive against them.
The new $25/month plan offer is a great "win" for consumers, at least for now. But it's also potentially detrimental to the MVNO market as I recently pointed out in this article declaring that MNO carriers must allow their MVNO partners to offer truly unlimited data plans.