CricketWireless expands in S. Florida
Prepaid plans lose stigma, grow in popularity
CricketWireless, AT&T’s prepaid mobile phone service company, is expanding in South Florida, and the company is offering tantalizing lower rates than major carriers — including AT&T.
The region is an attractive market for Cricket, which focuses on a different market than its parent company, said John Dwyer, president of CricketWireless.
“We’re continuing to invest in the market because South Florida is a growing, thriving market and this prepaid segment is very strong— 26 percent of all wireless customers are on prepaid plans,” Dwyer said. “They’re coming to understand there is an opportunity to save some money.”
Cricket offers cell service for no contract, no credit check, and month-to-month payments. The difference froma major carrier like AT&T is payment must be made upfront.
Industry analysts and consumer advocates say Cricket and other prepaid wireless companies can be a good deal for consumers who don’t use a lot of data, though there may be a trade-off in video speed.
While Cricket customers pay about 33 percent less per gigabyte than theywould for other plans, there’s a “diminished video quality” as Cricket automatically streams video, which avoids maxing out the data plan but is slower than other networks, according toMoney magazine, which recently compared100 plans from15 companies.
Roger Entner, an industry consultant and analyst for Recon Analytics in Boston, said there are “smaller and smaller” differences between major carriers and prepaid plans.
Generally, Cricket is best for consumers who don’t use a lot of data, he said. That’s because when a Cricket customer exceeds 22 gigabytes during anymonthly cycle, speedsmay be “temporarily slowed during periods of network congestion,” according to Cricket’swebsite.
Cheaper mobile service has prompted more consumers to move frommajor carriers to prepaid services— considered once mainly for those without good credit, Entner said.
“The whole stigma that prepaid had in the past is quickly disappearing,” he said.
So why don’t more people switch? “Inertia,” Entner said.
AT&T acquired LeapWireless in 2014 and changed its name to CricketWireless. Based in Atlanta, CricketWireless has about100 authorized retail stores in South Florida, with 20 of those in Palm Beach County and 30 in Broward. In 2016, Cricket opened16 new stores in the region, and year-to-date, five stores. Cricket phones and services also are sold at Best Buy stores.
Cricket’s basic cell-phone plan starts at $30 for one gigabyte of data. Smartphone plans start at $50 a month for up to 8 gigabytes. For $60 a month— including taxes and fees— consumers can get unlimited data, aswell as calls and texts to and from Mexico, Canada and theU.S.
Recently, Cricket has been promoting a $50 bill credit for switching to its mobile service from major carriers— except AT&T. At the same time, Cricket charges $9.99 for a subscriber access or SIM card in making