Several days ago, a leak occurred on Reddit indicating that Cricket Wireless would rename its unlimited data plans and add new features and better pricing to its most expensive unlimited plan. The post indicated that the changes would occur on August 11th. The original post was quickly removed from Reddit. Now, sources have confirmed to Wave7 Research that the changes are in fact happening, however, pricing will likely be a bit different than what was originally posted to Reddit. In addition to the updated plans, Cricket Wireless is also running a few different phone promos as part of its Back-to-School sales efforts.
Cricket Wireless Updated Phone Plan Details
Cricket currently offers two unlimited data plans, one simply called "Unlimited" and the other Unlimited Extra. Starting on August 11th, the plans will have new names. The Unlimited plan will be called "Cricket Core" and the Unlimited Extra plan will be retitled "Unlimited More."
As it stands now, Cricket's Unlimited plan features the following:
- Price - $55/month or $50 after auto-pay credit, taxes and fees included
- Unlimited data, with speeds capped at a maximum of 3 Mbps and video streaming limited to about 1.5Mbps or a resolution of 480p
- Unlimited talk, text, and data while in the USA and also while traveling in Mexico and Canada
- Unlimited texting from the USA to over 37 countries
- Data Prioritization Policy - after 22GB of data gets consumed in a month, data speeds may be temporarily slowed during times of congestion
- $10 for 10GB mobile hotspot
- Multi-Line Pricing - 2 lines for $80, 3 for $90, 4 for $100, and 5 for $125
When Cricket's Unlimited plan converts over to Unlimited Core, it will stay at the same price and keep all of the same features described above except for one thing. The plan will feature always-on data prioritization. That means anytime Cricket's network gets congested, data speeds will temporarily slow down as opposed to only temporarily slowing after 22GB of data gets consumed.
As it stands now Cricket's Unlimited Extra plan features the following:
- Price - $60/month or $55 after auto-pay credit, taxes and fees included
- Unlimited LTE data, with no speed caps
- Unlimited talk, text, and data while in the USA and also while traveling in Mexico and Canada
- Unlimited texting from the USA to over 37 countries
- Data Prioritization Policy - data speeds may be temporarily slowed during times of congestion
- $10 for 10GB mobile hotspot
- Multi-Line Pricing - 2 lines for $90, 3 for $120, 4 for $150 and 5 for $180
When Cricket's Unlimited Extra plan gets converted over to Unlimited More it will retain all of the features above except mobile hotspot will be included with the plan and multi-line pricing will be cheaper. Unlimited More will include 15GB of mobile hotspot. Multi-line pricing will improve to the following:
- 2 lines for $90, 3 lines for $110, 4 lines for $130 and 5 lines for $160
Cricket Wireless Back-to-School Promos
Cricket Wireless is running several Back-to-School phone sales including:
Offers Valid Until 8/10/19
- $50 off Apple iPhone 7 (32GB) and iPhone 7 Plus (32GB) - requires minimum $30/month plan. New lines/upgrades/port-in pricing available once every 90 days
- LG Stylo 4 or the LG Stylo 5 $99.99 (for qualified ports) - must activate 2 new voice lines one on a plan priced $30 or higher and other must be a port in on a plan $55 or higher
- Get a free Motorola moto e5 CRUISE with any Cricket Unlimited plan - requires port-in
If you don't like any of those deals, it is likely some new phone deals will launch on 8/11/19 to coincide with the launch of the new plans and to replace the expiring offers above.
Offers Valid Until 9/19/19
- 4 Lines of Unlimited Data with a Cricket Unlimited plan
- Get a free LG Fortune 2 with any Cricket Unlimited plan - requires port in
- Buy One LG V35 ThinQ, Get One Free (online only) - must activate 2 new voice lines one on a plan priced $30 or higher and other must be a port in on a plan $55 or higher
In addition to the above offers, Cricket Wireless is also offering a big discount on the Samsung Galaxy S9. New lines that port-in and activate on an unlimited plan priced $55 or higher can get the device for just $274.99. It is regularly priced at $549.99.
Editor's Take
Cricket's current unlimited phone plans fall severely behind the competition. Neither of the unlimited plan options comes with mobile hotspot, a feature that all major carrier prepaid brands such as Sprint's Boost Mobile, Verizon's Visible, and T-Mobile's Metro-By-T-Mobile include. Instead, AT&T owned Cricket Wireless charges extra for the feature. Without the extra charge for mobile hotspot, pricing between all the major carrier prepaid brands would be largely comparable, although Visible does undercut the competition for single line plans.
For the reasons just described, Cricket's updated unlimited plans have long been overdue. However, the lack of any mobile hotspot on the $55 Unlimited Core plan still seems like a major omission. Every major carrier prepaid brand plan includes it at that price point and with faster data speeds. For Cricket Wireless fans who do need mobile hotspot, the Unlimited More plan will still provide a nice cost-savings of at least $10/month.