Cricket Wireless New Improved Plans
Cricket Wireless recently increased the amount of LTE data offered in all of of their prepaid wireless plans. Facing stiff competition from providers that actually offer real LTE data speeds this looks to be a very good move on their part. I criticize Cricket here as their LTE data speed is capped at 8 Mbps while their HSPA+ is capped at 4 Mbps. Meanwhile, competition from the likes of T-Mobile offer an HSPA+ pipeline that is actually capable of delivering faster speeds (theoretical max of 42 Mbps) than anything Cricket is offering. Still, Cricket's speeds should be plenty fast for the majority of it's customers, and their overall network coverage is extensive.
Back to these new plans. Cricket has increased the data on the $40 and $50 plans by 500 mb each to what you see listed in the graphic. The $60 pro plan however, doubled the data going from 5 GB to 10 GB of "LTE." The $50/$45 plan puts them in direct competition now to large rival Tracfone, as well as Boost Mobile and MetroPCS. Tracfone owns AT&T MVNO brands Net10 and Straight Talk that also offer plans containing 3 GB of LTE data and unlimited talk and text at a cost of $45. Cricket Wireless made one other promotional change, in that their family plan will now offer up to 5 lines for $100 if all lines are signed up for the "Basic" plan. Supposedly all of these new plans are promotional prices, however no dates were given as to when or if at all they will actually expire.
Lastly, Cricket is targeting T-Mobile and MetroPCS customers by offering a $100 account credit to those who switch to Cricket and port a number in and also activate a new line of service on the basic, smart, or pro plans.