The New Cricket Wireless is here and it’s ready to offer customers 4G LTE service. With AT&T’s acquisition of Leap Wireless finally completed, AIO and Cricket Wireless have come together to form the New Cricket Wireless, bringing Cricket’s brand name and affordable non contract prices together with AIO’s widespread 4G LTE. Cricket Wireless president Jennifer Van Buskirk has stated that Cricket is “stepping up their game.” and giving new Cricket customers great prices, with the choice of popular phones and loyalty rewards, and friendly service on a reliable nationwide 4G LTE network. She also states that the New Cricket Wireless has more 4G LTE coverage than Sprint, T-Mobile and Metro PCS, which would be a huge step up in data speeds and coverage for legacy Cricket Customers who have chosen to stay with the carrier after the merger.
The New Cricket comes with what they’re calling simple and affordable rate plans with unlimited talk, text, and data, starting as low as $35 a month, but only after you have the $5 credit that comes from having auto pay as part of your plan. If you choose to stay off of auto pay then you end up paying the normal $40 per month for the starter plan. From there prices raise to $45 and $55, or $50 and $60 without the auto pay credit. They also have an unlimited talk and text plan that starts at just $25 a month, and it isn’t stated but we can assume that the $5 auto pay credit applies here too. Those who have the need for international features will have access to international calling plans starting at just $15 a month, and/or the addition of unlimited international texting. Family savings from AIOs recent plan changes haven’t left, offering people with multiple lines up to $90 in savings a month.
Cricket has already started offering customers the services associated with the changes coming from the merger, and has nearly 3,000 redesigned and rebranded Cricket retail stores open and ready. Previous Cricket customers that have chosen to stay with the network will end up having to switch to new handsets that support the new network technology. Since Cricket wireless previously ran on CDMA, new GSM enabled handsets will be required to support the network once everything has been completely integrated.