Thoughts on Cricket

[todpod]

If I am reading it right I can get 4 lines unlimited talk and text and 500meg of data, for a $100. That works even if we share the data. Thought about family mobile from walmart but we are in BFE so tmobile's coverage relies on ATT here and no data. Verizon and ATT are the only ones with real coverage here. Currently run PagePlus and it works well, but doesn't scale up well.

 

[s44]

Looks like it. With two lines it's no discount at all, because it doesn't stack with the autopay. But the third, fourth, and fifth lines are nicely priced.

 

[lakedude]

We are on "Republic Wireless" and we love it. Republic uses hybrid technology which allows the phones to have voice, text and data over either cell or WiFi connections. You must have home WiFi for Republic Wireless to be an option.

My plan is $10 a month for unlimited text, voice and pictures but no data.

For $15 more a month ($25 total) you can add unlimited 3G data.

Unlimited 4G data is available for $40 per month (Moto-X only).

Republic uses Sprint but there is free roaming and the phone will work anywhere there is either a cell or WiFi signal available.

I've got the Moto-G which is a fantastic phone. Check out some reviews.

If you are interested I can send you a link that will save each of us $20.

My wife has their Beta phone, the Defy-XT which is no longer available new but can be found used on eBay. The plan is different for this phone, it is $19 per month for unlimited text, voice and data but picture texts do not work with this older phone.

Using WiFi saves them money and they pass the savings on to you.

 

[todpod]

4 g data from sprint does me no good. I have sprint 3 g service in a small area around me and little wifi except at my house. I get a couple miles from my house I am off network. The $10 plan would be the only one that would make sense but the only offer 2 phones, and I have to buy 4, I don't really want to spend $600 on phones. I like the concept, I wish they would use a different network

 

[lakedude]

Yeah Republic's 4G is a bit pricey, especially since you need their $300 phone to get it.

Won't you need to buy phones to get on Cricket? Answer: They are free after rebate.

Are you bringing your old phones over with the $10 Cricket SIM? Answer: No need.

There is an option for you to pick up one of Republic's old beta phones used from eBay. The old Defy-XT is going for around $50 for the phone. The plan is different for the old phones, $19 a month for unlimited talk, text and 3G data but no picture texts.

My wife has the Defy-XT and it works pretty good although it pales in comparison to the newer Moto-G.

Hmm it looks like you can get Cricket's cheapest smartphone for free after rebate...

I'd spring for at least one Moto-G from Cricket at $100 after rebate. I've got one, it is great.

So it looks like it would take about 10 months for the $600 in phones from Republic to pay for themselves. Also you would have MUCH nicer phones but your only data would be from WiFi on the $10 plan. After the break even point the Republic phones would save you $60 a month.

 

[todpod]

I can't get sprint 4g here even if I wanted it, its not offered. I do like the Moto-G. Kids will get the free phones unless they come up with $$
Wife wants to go old school, she wants a phone with a keyboard, says she can't use a touch screen (while she is playing on her kindle).
Republic is definitely interesting, thanks for the information I will keep investigating for sure.

 

[DigDog]

oh.

i thought you were referring to the incomprehensible english game-like-thing which looks like baseball.

 

[s44]

I don't think Republic is really comparable to Cricket.

The AT&T-owned version of Cricket, like Straight Talk, is a legit alternative to full-price postpaid service. Comparable data speeds, coverage, and use model. You can use any unlocked phone from AT&T/T-Mo or abroad, and if you don't like the service you can take your device to another MVNO/carrier easily.

Republic sticks you on Sprint's bargain basement EVDO network and coverage, and relies on wifi calling (which T-Mo also has, with much better data service) to patch the awful build-out. Stone age data connectivity and low-to-medium-end devices (which you can't bring to another carrier, ugh) put you on phone usage patterns from two+ years ago. It's a nice super-bargain option to not having data service at all, but isn't for power users.

 

[corkyg]

Cricket and others of its ilk are AOK as long as your area has it and you don't travel much.

 

[todpod]

The problem with t-mobile they offer no data service here. No with cricket owned by ATT it makes it a viable alternative. A lot of people run Straight talk here and it works fine. I like Page Plus but the same thing would be about $40 more expensive then Cricket right now.

 

[s44]

Cricket and others of its ilk are AOK as long as your area has it and you don't travel much.

That's old Cricket. New Cricket is the rebrand of AIO after AT&T bought the old one.

It's now one of the *best*-coverage prepaid services.

 

[dlock13]

Cricket is fantastic. I've been on Aio (now Cricket) for the past... 8 months, and I've never had any kind of problem with the service.

If you are interested, I can send you an invite which can earn us both a $25 statement credit. You'd have to stay on the service for 60 days, but it is well worth it IMO.

 

[todpod]

I might just do that, let me figure out what we are doing, probably the first couple of weeks in July

 

[lakedude]

So Cricket doesn't look too bad, especially with the free phones and invite discount. Once again if you can afford it the Moto-G is well worth the $100 Cricket is charging.

Not sure why there is so much negativity for the Republic. We had Straight Talk (ATT based) before and it sucked in our area. Slow, unreliable and expensive relative to Republic.

I can stream YouTube videos on my wife's phone using Republic's 3G at work inside the building, not everyone can. I'm not sure how or why anyone would need more bandwidth than that? Now I'm sure this varies by location but Republic/Sprint works good around here.

We are very happy with Republic. I'm not suggesting it for people who know they have crappy Sprint coverage, just saying that it is better and cheaper than what we had before.

Texting with Straight Talk was hit and miss. I don't know, it might have been the phones or the network, not sure. Some texts just disappeared forever, others would get backed up and then come in a bunch perhaps the next day.

This does not happen on Republic. Texts work great.

 

[Bman123]

I'm on cricket now but was aio before and I have no complaints what so ever. I use the $50 a month plan so its $45 with auto pay and no taxes added its a flat $45 a month. Data speeds on a LTE device top off at 8-9mbps but that's more then fast enough and I get signal everywhere thanks to it being on att towers.

The service is great, I have no complaints with them at all been using it for 4 months now and I switched from t mobile which had horrible coverage where I work and now I get LTE signal almost everywhere I've been

 

[npaladin-2000]

That's old Cricket. New Cricket is the rebrand of AIO after AT&T bought the old one.

It's now one of the *best*-coverage prepaid services.

Except for the part where they throttle HSPA+ service to 4 mbps and LTE service to 8 mpbs. That always smelled pretty funny to me. I get 7 mbps over H2O wireless's HSPA+, same AT&T network, no extra battery drain from the LTE radio. What's the point of LTE if it's capped to HSPA+ speed?

 

[paperwastage]

Except for the part where they throttle HSPA+ service to 4 mbps and LTE service to 8 mpbs. That always smelled pretty funny to me. I get 7 mbps over H2O wireless's HSPA+, same AT&T network, no extra battery drain from the LTE radio. What's the point of LTE if it's capped to HSPA+ speed?

latency/ping

and VoLTE (sometime soon.....maybe)

(and I assume LTE can support more users/bandwidth vs 3G over the same frequency block size... so you get better quality)


I don't particularly see more battery drain on LTE vs 3G on my nexus 5

 

[npaladin-2000]

latency/ping

and VoLTE (sometime soon.....maybe)

(and I assume LTE can support more users/bandwidth vs 3G over the same frequency block size... so you get better quality)


I don't particularly see more battery drain on LTE vs 3G on my nexus 5

I have on my LG G2, I've done side-by-side comparisons with the same device on AT&T (full LTE), Net10 (capped LTE) and H2O (HSPA+ only). There's definitely a battery advantage to avoiding the LTE network. LTE requires a separate radio from HSPA+, until they get VoLTE going so the HSPA+ radio is no longer needed...and somehow I don't think that's going to be on Cricket for a while yet, it'll probably be restricted to postpaid AT&T initially.

Anyway, as it is now I prefer H2O over Cricket. As far as supporting more users, the way Cricket throttles everyone, it had better, hadn't it? 8 mbps is less than half of what HSPA+ is theoretically capable of, and that's what they limit LTE to?

 

[Annon2255]

I have on my LG G2, I've done side-by-side comparisons with the same device on AT&T (full LTE), Net10 (capped LTE) and H2O (HSPA+ only). There's definitely a battery advantage to avoiding the LTE network.

Sorry to get a little off the OP's main topic, but do people still have enough battery life problems that they have to worry about the battery drain differences like this? My Verizon GS3 with a custom rom (Carbon Rom) will last 24-36 hours with moderate to heavy use (Calling, e-mail, streaming music over bluetooth in the car, web browsing, etc.) on LTE. I typically plug it in to charge when I go to bed every night and never have a problem.

Not trolling, I'm just surprised to see you so concerned by the issue that it actually determines which carrier you use. I figured newer phones than mine must have better battery life and the issue was relatively minor at this point in the game.

 

[npaladin-2000]

Sorry to get a little off the OP's main topic, but do people still have enough battery life problems that they have to worry about the battery drain differences like this? My Verizon GS3 with a custom rom (Carbon Rom) will last 24-36 hours with moderate to heavy use (Calling, e-mail, streaming music over bluetooth in the car, web browsing, etc.) on LTE. I typically plug it in to charge when I go to bed every night and never have a problem.

Not trolling, I'm just surprised to see you so concerned by the issue that it actually determines which carrier you use. I figured newer phones than mine must have better battery life and the issue was relatively minor at this point in the game.

Well, it actually does affect battery life by about a third depending on usage pattern. Having that LTE radio on all the time even impacts background syncing. I'd found where my phone would go 36 hours with moderate usage on HSPA, it would only do 24 hours while on LTE. Granted me and every other sane person out there just charges the phone when they go to bed, but that's still a very noticeable difference. And on the days when the device is used heavily it's the difference between making it to the end of the day or not.

Some people might not care, it might not make a realistic difference with some usage patterns, but the difference is definitely there, and it matters to me.

 

[Strk]

Sorry to get a little off the OP's main topic, but do people still have enough battery life problems that they have to worry about the battery drain differences like this? My Verizon GS3 with a custom rom (Carbon Rom) will last 24-36 hours with moderate to heavy use (Calling, e-mail, streaming music over bluetooth in the car, web browsing, etc.) on LTE. I typically plug it in to charge when I go to bed every night and never have a problem.

Not trolling, I'm just surprised to see you so concerned by the issue that it actually determines which carrier you use. I figured newer phones than mine must have better battery life and the issue was relatively minor at this point in the game.

The only big battery drain issue I've had on my Nexus 5 is with location set to high accuracy.

 

[Chocu1a]

So, since Cricket now runs on at&t's network, can I use any unlocked gsm phone?

 

[dlock13]

So, since Cricket now runs on at&t's network, can I use any unlocked gsm phone?

That is correct. Though, you will obviously have to have a phone that uses AT&T's bands, but yes, any GSM unlocked phone. If you have a phone locked to AT&T, that will work as well. I have a Lumia 1520 that was locked to AT&T and worked perfectly fine on their network.

 

[npaladin-2000]

That is correct. Though, you will obviously have to have a phone that uses AT&T's bands, but yes, any GSM unlocked phone. If you have a phone locked to AT&T, that will work as well. I have a Lumia 1520 that was locked to AT&T and worked perfectly fine on their network.

This part is also easier to deal with if you don't have to worry about LTE.

Just sayin. :biggrin:

 

[Chocu1a]

That is correct. Though, you will obviously have to have a phone that uses AT&T's bands, but yes, any GSM unlocked phone. If you have a phone locked to AT&T, that will work as well. I have a Lumia 1520 that was locked to AT&T and worked perfectly fine on their network.

Cool, I have a sim unlocked Verizon Note 3. It can get hspa+ speeds on AT&T.