Cricket isn’t exactly a household name in wireless carriers. Compared to Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile, they’re small. But if you’re like many typical phone users and live in a market they serve, Cricket might be a good fit for mobile and data services. Cricket has focused on bringing much lower prices to customers making and receiving calls in their home region and providing unlimited bundles of minutes.
Cricket may not be the best choice for those who take a lot of wide-ranging business travel. For them, a national carrier like Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T would probably be better.
But it could be a great pick for a wide range of people who don’t travel much, including talk-crazy teens, college students, schoolteachers, babysitters, stay-at-home parents, small-business owners who don’t travel (think of the thousands of mom and pop stores in your area) and many other typical mobile phone users.
If you’re willing to ditch voicemail, you can get the service for as little as $30 per month for unlimited minutes in your local area. A more reasonable plan with long distance, text and picture messages, and voicemail costs $40 per month.
Cricket has no contract terms or early termination fees. The downside is that they don’t do much to subsidize the cost of their phones.
Coverage outside of the home region (or “home coverage area” as Cricket calls it) can be added in other Cricket markets for $5 per month. So even if you’re a business traveler, if your travels take you mostly to markets served by Cricket and you live on the phone, it could still be a very good option. For example, if you live and work primarily in Chicago, but travel often to Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford, and South Bend, Cricket can cover all of those areas at low cost, even if you talk a couple of hours a day (3,000+ minutes a day). month). ) on your cell phone.
Cricket Communications Local Coverage Areas
As of this writing, Cricket offers unlimited wireless and flat rate broadband services in these metropolitan areas that cover much of the United States. These are referred to by Cricket as “Local Coverage Areas” to differentiate between the flat-rate unlimited service customers get while in those areas and the roaming charges that apply when they are completely outside of Cricket’s network. Local coverage areas also often offer 3G wireless broadband services.
1. Alabama: Fort Mitchell, City of Phoenix, Smiths Station
2. Alaska: no regions of origin
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 regions of origin
8. Delaware: no regions of origin
9. District of Columbia (Washington, DC) – No home regions yet, coming soon?
10. Florida – Most of the state is covered by the “Premium Extended Coverage” plan
11. Georgia: Columbus, Macon, Savannah
12. Hawaii: no regions of origin
13. Idaho: Boise
14. Illinois: Chicago and its suburbs, Rockford
15. Indiana: Gary, New Albany, South Bend, Indianapolis
16. Iowa: Council Bluffs
17. Kansas: Kansas City, Wichita
18. Kentucky: Lexington, Louisville
19. Louisiana: part of the state covered by the “Premium Extended Coverage” plan
20. Maine: no regions of origin
21. Maryland: no regions of origin
22. Massachusetts: no home regions
23. Michigan: Ann Arbor, Detroit and some other areas covered by the “Premium Extended Coverage” plan
24. Minnesota: no regions of origin
25. Mississippi: Olive Branch, Southaven, Tunica
26. Missouri: Kansas City, St. Louis
27. Montana: no regions of origin
28. Nebraska: Lincoln, Omaha
29. Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks, Carson City
30. New Hampshire: no regions of origin
31. New Jersey: no regions of origin
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 regions of origin
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 regions of origin
41. South Carolina: Beaufort, Charleston, Rock Hill
42. South Dakota: no regions of origin
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 regions of origin
47. Virginia: part of the state covered by the “Premium Extended Coverage” plan
48. Washington: Spokane, Vancouver
49. West Virginia: New Cumberland, Wellsburg
50. Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison
51. Wyoming: no regions of origin
The main areas lacking in flat rate coverage are sparsely populated areas like North and South Dakota and big cities like New York and Los Angeles. It’s hard to make money in regions with few people, so Cricket has focused on larger markets. Some large markets had too much competition, as RF spectrum licenses for those cities were expensive and had many offers, so Cricket passed them by. Cricket isn’t a good choice for heavy usage in those areas, since you’re roaming there, but you can still get service.
For $5 more per month, many areas are covered under “Premium Extended Coverage” and go from roaming minutes to unlimited flat-rate coverage.
Bottom line
Ultimately, Cricket doesn’t make much sense unless you live and work in a local or premium extended coverage area. But if you do, it could be a bargain.