Cricket Wireless is kind of a pile of crap

"Textured Soy Protein" (texturedsoyprotein)
11/25/2015 at 12:31 • Filed to: None

A few months ago, I left my Verizon cell phone contract for the wild new world of unlocked phones and prepaid cell phone plans. I thought I was getting an amazing crazy good deal with Cricket Wireless’s 10 GB Pro plan, but it’s got a couple downsides I didn’t realize until after I signed up.

Cricket is owned by AT&T. Through Cricket, you can get cheap plans that use AT&T’s 4G LTE network. If you’ve seen any of Cricket’s weird commercials starring anthropomorphic blobs, squares and furballs, they all crow about LOOK HOW MUCH 4G LTE COVERAGE WE HAVE!

Technically, this is true. But I’ll get to the problems later.

Cricket encourages people to !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and buy a Cricket SIM card. I bought a Moto X Pure Edition, ported my number from Verizon to my new Cricket SIM card, and off I went. I was all excited because for $55/month after a $5 monthly credit for doing autopay, I’d get 10 GB of data on AT&T’s 4G LTE network, plus unlimited talk and text and assorted international features that don’t matter to me because all of my Jewish Mexican cousins left Mexico and now live in San Diego and DC. But, I soon discovered some issues that bug the crap out of me:

Cricket throttles your LTE download speeds to 8 Mbps.

Sure, you’re connected to AT&T’s LTE network, but you’re never going to see any speeds faster than 8 Mbps. In general web browsing and music streaming, 8 Mbps is fine. But one of the main reasons I sprung for the 10 GB plan was so I could watch whatever videos I felt like while on the go, and the speed limit definitely messes with video quality, depending on how efficiently the video stream you’re watching manages bandwidth.

Cricket doesn’t exactly make it easy to find this information before you sign up. If you check out the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , there’s a tiiiiiiiiny link way at the bottom that says *Important Data Speed, Usage and Plan Pricing Info and Terms. Hell, I’m usually a very thorough online shopper and I didn’t notice this link until after I signed up. When you click this link, you get a popup which says, among other things,

High-speed data access allows download speeds of a maximum of 8 Mbps for compatible LTE devices and 4 Mbps for compatible HSPA+ devices.

The same popup window told me another thing:

Cricket charges activation fees in stores, but not if you buy a phone or SIM card online.

Not knowing this, I stupidly went to the Cricket kiosk at the mall to get a SIM card, because I already had my shiny new Moto X Pure and wanted to switch to Cricket immediately. That same barely-noticeable popup that mentions the download speed cap also says:

No activation fee for online purchases. Activation fee of up to $25 may apply for in-store activations.

I paid a damn activation fee at the stupid mall kiosk that I totally could’ve avoided if I ordered a SIM card online!

Then there’s one final nut punch from Cricket if you bring your own device:

Cricket only supports mobile hotspot on a very small list of phones, and blocks it on not only the rest of the phones they sell, but also ALL bring-your-own-device accounts.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! says Cricket sells hotspot access for another $10/month. You can add it to your plan on an as-needed basis. But I couldn’t find anywhere on my account page to add the hotspot feature. I called Cricket support who informed me that the only way to add hotspot access to my account is to buy one of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

The very nice but also very useless Cricket support person in the Philippines who I spoke to, suggested that “even though you might have a sentimental attachment to your phone, if you really want the hotspot service, you can buy one of the Cricket phones that support hotspot.”

I don’t have a sentimental attachment to my phone. I paid $400 for the damn thing and brought it to Cricket for their supposedly great plan. I don’t want another Cricket phone that’s worse than my phone!

Since discovering these problems, I’ve now found that MetroPCS, which is owned by T-Mobile and uses T-Mobile’s network, offers a plan that’s much more suited to what I want. They have unlimited data, talk and text for $60/month, with no download speed limits, and 8 GB of hotspot usage included each month. I would be on this plan already, except T-Mobile has crap coverage in my corner of Wisconsin. They have a network in the city of Madison itself, but it quickly disappears only a short distance west of Madison.

That huge swath of the state of Wisconsin that’s white on this map is where there is zero T-Mobile/MetroPCS coverage, not even roaming. That just won’t work for me.

So...I’m chilling with my Cricket plan for now, because at least it’s cheap, and it mostly works for streaming video but isn’t great, and because the times I need to use mobile hotspot are relatively infrequent. But once a better option comes along, hey, I’ve got my unlocked phone and I can jump ship whenever I want. I’ll just have to make sure I do whatever I need to in order to avoid paying another activation fee.

DISCUSSION (31)

PS9 > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:36

8 mbps Aint mobile fios, but surely thats enough to stream HD video off somewhere, right? I only get ~4-6 mbps at home (dont ask) and all my HD streaming sites function just fine.

Textured Soy Protein > PS9
11/25/2015 at 12:44

In theory it should work fine, but in practice, streaming video is very hit-or-miss. Youtube and Netflix mostly work fine, but I have mad problems with NBC Sports Live Extra, which I use to watch Washington Wizards games while I’m at the gym, with my parents’ DC-area Comcast login. On my old LG G2 on Verizon, the same app worked perfectly.

I think it comes down to how exactly Cricket accomplishes the download throttling, and how efficient different video streaming apps are or aren’t at managing bandwidth. But that’s just a guess.

Mercedes Streeter > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:52

CricKet has been a crap company since it started and it’s only marginally better now that they’re riding on AT&T’s infrastructure. But still not a good choice unless you really really need cheap no-contract wireless that isn’t a burner phone.

RobGronkowski'sPartyBusDriver > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:55

When i worked in CS for a cell carrier we got a lot of folks saying that they would leave for Wal-Mart prepaid or what have you. I kept trying to explain they would not be getting their own network, they would be sharing on another companies network and not guaranteed to get the best signal. I think Cricket is fine for those who never leave a metro area but outside of that it’s crap.

Stapleface-Now Hyphenated! > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:56

I have the cricket 2.5GB plan and have been nothing but happy with it. That being said, I’m not a power user, and I live outside of Philadelphia so I have ample 4gLTE coverage. As for the mobile hotspot thing, I tried it once to see if it would work, and I had no issue with a Nexus5 using FoxFi.

jariten1781 > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:57

Unless something has changed in the last year or so, you should be able to enable the hotspot with a simple root and SU (ie you won't need a new OS or any special ROM). I did this with every provider I had where they wanted to charge extra for it.

boxrocket > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 12:59

You get what you pay for.

That said, I strongly recommend T-Mobile. I’ve had them for a decade (even while I had an AT&T company phone) and been nothing but satisfied, including traveling around the US and Canada.

PushToStart > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:01

Here’s my opinion: all wireless companies are fucking crooks. Every single one has contracts full of ridiculous clauses and conditions, mostly with fees tacked on to them. They word things annoyingly complex, and in-store employees are usually necessary to decode them. Problem is, these in-store employees are pushy as hell to get you to buy this, upgrade that, and oh yeah, sign this too while you’re at it.

But it’s unavoidable. Basically everyone needs a cell phone these days, so this shit is unescapable. Verizon is who I’m with, and they’ve jerked me around plenty (basically screwed us out of our “grandfathered” unlimited data plan, and throttles the shit out of data speeds, despite not even being close to the 10 GB monthly limit).

Textured Soy Protein > jariten1781
11/25/2015 at 13:03

I’d rather not even mess with rooting if I can avoid it. I rooted my last phone, an LG G2 on Verizon, and doing so blocked me from receiving any OTA software updates. Granted now I’m on an unlocked Moto X Pure so it’s probably less of a problem, but still, I want to leave my phone fresh and clean with no root exploits needed.

I’m not a heavy hotspot user, it’s just little bits here and there. Not enough to motivate me to mess up my phone just for the sake of hotspot.

Textured Soy Protein > Stapleface-Now Hyphenated!
11/25/2015 at 13:05

There’s plenty of Cricket LTE coverage where I am too. The only time I notice the lack of data performance is certain streaming video apps.

I also have FoxFi, the full paid version (I paid for it on a previous phone). I tried it after I had issues with the built-in hotspot, and FoxFi doesn’t work on my phone, at all.

Textured Soy Protein > RobGronkowski'sPartyBusDriver
11/25/2015 at 13:06

Cricket’s coverage outside metro areas is totally fine. It’s the exact same cell towers as AT&T. The problem is not the coverage, it’s the data speed throttling.

Textured Soy Protein > boxrocket
11/25/2015 at 13:09

If I lived somewhere else, I’d be all about that sweet, sweet MetroPCS unlimited plan. But that big chunk of nonexistant Wisconsin T-Mobile coverage is too close for comfort.

jariten1781 > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:13

Yeah, it’ll usually kill OTA (or worse, won’t kill OTA but will fuck up the phone if you take it). There’s usually folks that will throw up the newest OTA ROM well before the roll-out would have gotten to you anyway, but that requires you to actively watch and manage your ROMS which is a big PITA.

I’m not a phone tinkerer. There should be a way I can use the phone the way I want to since it’s obviously capable (being hamstrung solely by software), but I always end up rooting sooner or later, depending on what’s going on:

1) If I need or can’t stand a feature. I absolutely need WiFi tethering or hotspot on my work phone. If it’s locked, that sucker gets rooted day 1. I’ll also root day one if the skin the manufacturer has is awful. I hate it because it forces me to actively manage the phone which I shouldn’t have to do.

2) When updates are no longer being pushed by the provider. I’ll go over to Cyanogen mod whenever so I can get the new features.

3) After I pull it off the network I’ll throw a new rom on that’s specifically designed for what I’m going to do with the phone in its post-network form.

Textured Soy Protein > jariten1781
11/25/2015 at 13:22

We’re pretty much on the same page. I don’t want to root unless there’s something that really pisses me off. I hate having to administer a phone. I just want it to work.

There were just enough stupid annoying little quirks of LG’s KitKat build that I rooted it. That allowed me to tweak away most of the annoyances in the stock ROM, using a couple XPosed Framework modules, but piling up the tweaks made it unstable.

Eventually when LG/Verizon pushed out the Lollipop update I manually re-flashed the stock Lollipop build onto it, and that had removed most of the annoyances from the stock KitKat build.

Another reason I don’t want to root my X Pure is because it’ll void the warranty .

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:25

When I travelled to the US not long ago and roamed on AT&T’s “4G” network, I found the speed wasn’t much faster than the 3G speeds I experienced in the Toronto area.

It seems to be “4G” in name only...

boxrocket > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:27

Gotcha.

Does AT&T's GoPhone have the same restrictions as Cricket? Ditto Straight Talk from Walmart?

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:29

How is Sprint coverage out there? I have Virgin Mobile in NJ (a prepaid subsidiary of Sprint) and the LTE coverage is always SLOW. Sure it definitely works for me since I mostly use wifi, but yeah its hard to find actual LTE speeds in places. Only benefit is it being CHEAP. 2.5GB of data (unlimited throttled 2g after that), unlimited talk/text, for $35 ($37 and change with sales tax) per month.

Textured Soy Protein > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
11/25/2015 at 13:31

That might have more to do with roaming quirks than anything else.

My gf has a prepaid plan with Straight Talk which also uses the AT&T network. In our house, if I run a speed test, my phone maxes out at 8 Mbps but hers will easily double that, or more.

I don’t want to switch to Straight Talk mostly because the largest data cap they offer is 5 GB. That’s fine for her but not quite enough for me. Also they don’t have visual voicemail, it’s the old school dial-in, press 7 to delete this message, voicemail.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:39

Maybe... but from what I hear from work collegues in the US, Verizon > AT&T

Textured Soy Protein > boxrocket
11/25/2015 at 13:50

My gf has Straight Talk. Their top plan is $42.50/mo after autopay discount for 5 GB of data and unlimited talk/text. No speed caps, but they don’t have visual voicemail. It’s the old-school dial-in kind.

GoPhone is $55/mo for a 4 GB data cap but you can buy additional data for $10/GB.

Both of these are sorta kinda possibilities for me, because at least I’d get away from Cricket’s speed caps. I don’t know whether I’d have hotspot issues with them but I might be able to check out Straight Talk on my gf’s phone.

But they’re still small-ish data caps, and one of the main reasons I left Verizon for Cricket was I wanted a nice generous data cap. Mostly because I go to the gym at night and I watch basketball games on my phone while doing cardio.

The options with big data caps are Cricket Pro for $55/mo, and MetroPCS Unlimited LTE for $60/mo.

Smarktalk > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 13:51

Hopefully the Band 12 light ups will get you what you need on the other half of the state.

Textured Soy Protein > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly
11/25/2015 at 13:52

This is true. I was on AT&T from 2004 to 2011. I switched to Verizon because I moved to a new apartment and AT&T kept having call quality issues at that location.

AT&T has steadily improved their coverage where it’s not quite as good as Verizon but I was comfortable enough with it to leave Verizon. It’s just Cricket has some not-well-publicized gotchas with their plans.

Textured Soy Protein > Wrong Wheel Drive (41%)
11/25/2015 at 13:58

Sprint’s LTE coverage has similarly large gaps in Wisconsin as T-Mobile.

Textured Soy Protein > Smarktalk
11/25/2015 at 14:07

According to this page , which links to this map , the Band 12 spectrum in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin including Madison is owned by U.S. Cellular and unlikely to be licensed to T-Mobile.

Smarktalk > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 14:18

Well that is a bitch. But, maybe you are in luck as supposedly by end of 2015, Wisconsin looks relatively fully covered if you base it of this - http://www.tmonews.com/2015/09/t-mobi…

I swapped over to T-Mobile for the $120 4 line 10GB each plan (mom is dealing with cancer again so taking the little burden off her) from AT&T and while I can say that AT&T up here in Western Washington has better coverage and less dead spots, so far I’ve been please with T-Mobile speeds and the WiFi calling is very helpful in one bar areas.

I’m hoping Band 12 eliminates the indoor issues and gets lit up soon.

Wrong Wheel Drive (41%) > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 14:33

I feel like Sprint has similarly large gaps in 100% of the areas they “cover”. Sure I get Internet connection of some sort in many places, but true LTE very rarely. But obviously I don't care enough to pay more so I'll cease complaining lol.

Textured Soy Protein > Smarktalk
11/25/2015 at 14:35

Interesting to see that map. If T-Mobile has added that coverage, it’s not yet being reflected on the coverage maps on their website and the MetroPCS site.

Also, I did a little looking and I may have another issue in switching to T-Mobile and/or MetroPCS. T-Mobile requires devices that use its Band 12 network to support VoLTE on Band 12. According to Motorola, T-Mobile Band 12 VoLTE support will be part of the Android Marshmallow update for the X Pure , which is coming “in the next few weeks” (as of that linked article which was published on 11/15/15).

So I’ll say that if T-Mobile rolls out Band 12 coverage in my corner of Wisconsin and Motorola pushes out the T-Mobile Band 12 VoLTE software update, then I can switch to MetroPCS.

halifax > jariten1781
11/25/2015 at 15:24

i rooted my first android phone because it was pretty, uh, well-loved by the time i got around to it. then i had one with a fiddly sim situation (the achilles of the droid dna, otherwise my ideal phone) and kept having to take it back to get new sims/phones. my current lg g3 is stock software/firmware, only added a wireless charging connector because qi is the best thing ever.

i would love to root it because verizon is SO SLOW with OTA updates, and the lg gui bugs me, but they talked the dear leader of my family plan into going with verizon flex/edge/whatever where you’re basically just leasing your hardware. and i’m locked into verizon because it’s the only network that covers my home area. rooting would break the tos for the lease.

doesn’t it also affect resale value if you try to hock it after its time with you is up? or do you always repurpose old equipment?

swaptastic > Textured Soy Protein
11/25/2015 at 16:38

Thanks for writing this. I really hate how companies still tell you how to use your data (e.g. pay extra for hotspot).

Textured Soy Protein > swaptastic
11/25/2015 at 17:52

I would (sort of) gladly pay the $10 extra for hotspot every once in a while, because hell, I’m getting 10 GB for only $55/month. But Cricket won’t even let me do that, because I brought my own unlocked device, not one of the phones on their list that they allow to use hotspot.

swaptastic > Textured Soy Protein
11/26/2015 at 11:14

It makes no sense either way. If they wanted to make more money from selling their own phones they should let people know upfront so they might be more inclined to purchase one through them. And like you said, here is a person who would pay you and extra $10 for hotspot usage but they don’t want to take your money. Someone at Cricket who is paid to make more money for the company, doesn’t know how to make more money for the company.