Have you ever seen a Cricket trap?
Written: Aug 10 '01
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Pros: Unlimited usage for less than $40.00 per month.
Cons: Many additional hidden costs, poor coverage and quality.
The Bottom Line: If it sounds too good to be true...
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| mnehr's Full Review: Cricket Communications Mobile Phone Service in Sal... |
Everyone wants something for nothing, and many people think they have found it in Cricket Communications. Cricket is a fairly new wireless company that promises unlimited wireless usage for around $40.00 per month. This sounds too good to be true, and in fact, it is. As with anything else in life, you get what you pay for, and when you are paying practically nothing for unlimited usage, it is important to assume there is some sort of catch.
What is a Cricket?
Cricket is a prepaid wireless service available in about twenty large cities around the country. From Phoenix to Charlotte, Cricket has been attempting to gain a foothold of customers across the country with the promise of unlimited wireless service at a low price. Cricket’s parent company Leap Wireless is attempting to take on the large carriers by offering a ‘different type’ of wireless service. Although Leap has purchased the licenses to sell their service in 36 states, they only have started selling their service in about twenty cities across the country. The reason for this slow growth is the fact that, instead of working with the existing wireless companies, Leap is attempting to build out their own CDMA digital network. While this may sound like an impressive move, this business plan is quite negative for their customers.
Prepaid Traps
The first problem that people run into with Cricket is that, unlike normally billing their customer, they use a prepaid service. What this means is that you must pay for your usage before you actually use the phone. Unlike other cell phone companies that charge their service in advance for your rate plan, a prepaid service requires you pay in advance to the day, or you will have no service, with no exceptions. In addition to this, if you wish to make long distance, or directory assistance calls, you must pay at least an extra $10.00 on your account. If you run out of the extra credit, you will not be able to make your call.
Cost Traps
For those who feel that prepaying their phone service is not a problem, especially considering the benefit of unlimited usage, watch out. If you wish to pay your bill at a Cricket retail location, you will pay an additional $2.00 to give them your money. If you wish to pay on line, you will pay an additional $2.00. If you wish to pay over the phone, you will pay an additional.. well.. you get the idea.
Unlike most other wireless services, Cricket does not include any features such as Call Waiting or Voice Mail. Once again, you will be adding an additional charge. Long distance is somewhat competitive at $0.08 per minute, however, it is still not to the point that one would want to consider replacing their home phone with a Cricket wireless phone. The charges continue to add up… Many people need to have their wireless number changed for various reasons. With most other wireless carriers, you are not charged to do this. Cricket, however, charges $20.00 for the two to three seconds it takes to reprogram your phone.
Because Cricket is a prepaid service you will not find the great discounts on wireless equipment that you would from conventional service. Instead of ‘free’ phones, one should expect to pay more of the non-contract price for their equipment. Normally this ranges well over $100.00 for a phone one could get free with a competitor.
Coverage Traps
Even with all of the tacked on charges, most people still find that the out of pocket value of Cricket worth the expense. It is not until one looks at their coverage area do they realize that the biggest issue facing them is if they can even use their phone at all. You never have to worry about a roaming charge with Cricket because there is no roaming. When I say NO ROAMING, I do not mean the no roaming charges that companies like Alltel offer with their Total Freedom rates. NO ROAMING to Cricket means that if you leave their limited coverage area, you cannot use your phone. Because Leap decided to build their own network instead of forming agreements with other carriers, they have what is probably the smallest coverage area in the country. For example, their Phoenix market service area basically just covers the metro area of Phoenix only, with quite a lot of gaps with in that area. In comparison, the regular wireless providers in Phoenix, such as Alltel, cover almost the entire state as their normal local calling area, and with their roaming agreements, give their customers almost seamless nationwide coverage.
Another problem that I have seen with Cricket’s wireless service is the fact that they are selling the service far faster than their network can handle the calls. There have been many local news reports about how their customer’s constantly get ‘network busy’ messages.
Chirping about Cricket
Considering all of these negative attributes to Cricket, why would anyone want to choose their service? The only real advantage to using Cricket is if you only stayed with in their local area and did not use your phone as a vital tool. As long as you are aware of all the negative attributes and potential problems, Cricket service may be the right type of service for some people. Many markets that Cricket is in, however, also have a similar competitor known as Boomerang. This is a similar prepaid service that, because of its affiliation with some of the larger carriers, offers a much higher quality prepaid service for a slightly lower cost. For most people, however, I would still recommend sticking with conventional wireless service, and remember, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 40.00/month
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mnehr
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Member: Matthew
Location: Texas
Reviews written: 72
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About Me:
A Republican, Neo-Conservative, Quasi-Libertarian, MBA. Confused yet?
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