Cricket changing your service
Cricket got some big plans for the future.
So when I walked into my local Cricket store the other day to pay my bill, I got surprising news as to why my phone had been losing service randomly. My Samsung Galaxy S4 was being transitioned over to AT&T’s new 4GLTE network, due to the final decision to do so after their acquisition of Cricket earlier this year for 1.2 Billion dollars. What does this mean for you and any other person on Crickets’ network? Quite a few things actually, depending upon your choice of mobile device, and service plan.
If you own an Android phone it happens to be a Samsung Galaxy S4 or older, you have to upgrade to either a S5 or newer or your service will be invalid as of March 1, 2015. The thing is, the Samsung Galaxy S3, and S4 aren’t GSM they are actually CDMA.
The craziest part about this situation is that many customers simply did not know that there would be a difference when signing up for Cricket when switching from a contract. They have also failed to rollout information to many unaware customers of their decision in written, or email. Some were lucky enough to receive this message through SMS:
“Cricket is upgrading its CDMA network to 4G GSM and expects to stop offering CDMA wireless service as early as March 2015. THIS CDMA PHONE WILL NO LONGER WORK ON OUR WIRELESS NETWORK AFTER WE COMPLETE THIS UPGRADE."
This message is attached to the Galaxy S4 on the Cricket website.
Not bad. Not bad at all.
What this means is that if you have an old iPhone 4 and above you’re essentially safe as these phones are safe, since Cricket doesn’t sell Cricket branded versions of these phones, unlike the Samsung Galaxy S3, and S4. The other unfortunate side in the tale is that you won’t get a lot for the trading in of your old phone to upgrade to a newer compatible phone such as the Samsung Galaxy S5. Currently at the most your Galaxy S4 is only worth $120.00 store credit.
Just one out of many Cricket stores.
Cricket plans won’t change very much, however their Muve music feature will not be available to future customers, AT&T says they will allow current customers to continue to have the service until they decide what they wish to do with it. Many of Cricket’s stores will be converting over to new marketing to reflect the change, and the brand in the form of over 3,000 stores.
With all these changes happening in less than a year, and many customers still unaware of the changes coming their way the future is still unclear for Cricket’s brand and its retention of customers. One thing is crystal clear when it comes to us consumers however, AT&T is very smart in its acquiring Cricket, as no matter what happens the profits will remain 100% but what’s risky is that it’s core customers may want to jump ship with their phones and get the unlimited no contract option by terminating early, since they can get the same service for a third of the price.
Will you stay with your carrier, or look into the newly marketed Cricket brand? Let us know.
