Cricket Wireless service - A Good Deal?

Cricket isn't exactly a household name in wireless assistance providers. Compared to Verizon, At&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile they are small fry. But if you're like a lot of typical phone users and live in a market they serve, Cricket might be a good selection for wireless phone and data services. Cricket has focused on providing much lower prices to customers who make and receive calls in their home region and to give them buckets of unlimited minutes.

Cricket might not be the top selection for those who do a lot of wide-ranging company travel. For them, a national carrier like Sprint, Verizon, and At&T would likely be better.

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But it could be an perfect selection for a wide range of folks who don't trip a lot along with talk-crazed teenagers, college students, school teachers, nannies, stay-at-home parents, small company owners who don't trip (think of the thousands of mom-and-pop shops in your area), and many other typical mobile phone users.

If you're willing to strip off voicemail, you can get assistance for as little as per month for unlimited minutes in your local area. A more inexpensive plan with long distance, text and photograph messages, and voicemail runs per month.

Cricket doesn't have ageement terms and 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 "local coverage area" as Cricket calls it) in other Cricket markets can be added for per month. So even if you are a company traveler, if your travels take you mostly to markets served by Cricket and you live on the telephone, it could still be a very good choice. For instance, if you live and work mostly in Chicago but often take trips to Milwaukee, Madison, Rockford, and South Bend, Cricket can cover all of those areas inexpensively even if you talk a merge of hours per day (over 3000 minutes per month) on your cell phone.

Cricket Communications Local Coverage Areas
At the time of this writing, Cricket offers flat-rate unlimited wireless phone and broadband services in these metro areas outside much of the United States. Cricket refers to them as "local coverage areas" to differentiate in the middle of the flat-rate unlimited assistance customers get while in those areas versus roaming charges that apply when thoroughly off of Cricket's network. Local coverage areas also typically offer 3G wireless broadband services, too.

1. Alabama: Fort Mitchell, Phoenix City, Smiths Station

2. Alaska: no home regions

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 home regions

8. Delaware: no home regions

9. District of Columbia (Washington, D.C.): no home regions yet, coming soon?

10. Florida: most of state covered by "Premium Extended Coverage" plan

11. Georgia: Columbus, Macon, Savannah

12. Hawaii: no home regions

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: some of state covered by "Premium Extended Coverage" plan

20. Maine: no home regions

21. Maryland: no home regions

22. Massachusetts: no home regions

23. Michigan: Ann Arbor, Detroit, and some other areas covered by "Premium Extended Coverage" plan

24. Minnesota: no home regions

25. Mississippi: Olive Branch, Southaven, Tunica

26. Missouri: Kansas City, St. Louis

27. Montana: no home regions

28. Nebraska: Lincoln, Omaha

29. Nevada: Las Vegas, Reno, Sparks, Carson City

30. New Hampshire: no home regions

31. New Jersey: no home regions

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 home regions

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 home regions

41. South Carolina: Beaufort, Charleston, Rock Hill

42. South Dakota: no home regions

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 home regions

47. Virginia: some of state covered by "Premium Extended Coverage" plan

48. Washington: Spokane, Vancouver

49. West Virginia: New Cumberland, Wellsburg

50. Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Madison

51. Wyoming: no home regions

The main areas missing from the flat-rate coverage are sparsely populated areas such as North and South Dakota and huge cities such as New York and Los Angeles. It's tough to make money in regions with few people, so Cricket has focused on bigger markets. Some big markets had too much competition as the Rf spectrum licenses for those cities were high-priced and heavily bid upon, so Cricket skipped over them. Cricket isn't a good selection for high usage in those areas as you're roaming there, but you can still get service.

For more per month, many areas are covered under "Premium Extended Coverage" and move from roaming minutes to the flat-rate unlimited coverage.

Bottom Line
Ultimately, Cricket doesn't make much sense unless you live and work in whether a local or premium extended coverage area. But if you do, it could be a bargain.

Cricket Wireless service - A Good Deal?

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