Cricket Wireless - WiFi calling and updated $55 Unlimited plan

[emperordahc]

Cricket is adding WiFi calling later this year along w/ HD voice for all plans.

Cricket also announced that effective April 2 their updated Unlimited plan is changing to match Verizon and AT&T’s new unlimited plans.

• $55 w/ auto-refill ($60 otherwise), includes all taxes. It was previously $70.
• Unlimited data; after 22GB there is a variable throttle based on network traffic, just like Verizon and AT&T’s plans.
• To compare: RW’s $60 plan, not including taxes, is only 6GB of data, period.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/03/01/cricket-wireless-announces-new-unlimited-data-plan/

https://www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans

WiFi calling is a big reason I stick w/ RW, but it’s becoming less of a unique feature. I’m moving to a location that has near zero cell signal from any carrier, so WiFi calling is needed. However, seeing the continued issues w/ 3.0 phones loosing wifi connections while sleeping, Cricket becomes a real option. (I understand that the disconnect is an Android doze issue, but if RW can’t find a consistent work around, RW’s no-cell-signal-wifi-only-calling is little different than any other carrier.) For $30 (including taxes) Cricket’s 1GB service is really close to RW’s 3.0 1GB for ~$25 (after taxes for me).

Is your phone losing its WiFi connection while sleeping?

RW is still my choice as I use <1GB of data. For several friends, they’re using Cricket’s unlimited plan already.

[cbwahlstrom]

Looks like the big four price war is heating up. I’m sticking with a metered plan for as long as they exist.

[rolandh]

If I had a need or want for more cell data, this and the current comeback of unlimited plans would interest me. I don’t, so, for me, meh. It’s worth noting Cricket’s high speed data is capped at 8Mbps. More than enough for most mobile data use but not truly unlimited in terms of speed. 4G LTE data is capable of much higher throughput.

As far as the current unlimited industry trend, it isn’t as if we haven’t seen it before. The industry wasn’t interested in sustaining it then, time will tell if there’s interest in sustaining it over time going forward.

[royrose]

rolandh wrote:

As far as the current unlimited industry trend, it isn’t as if we haven’t seen it before. The industry wasn’t interested in sustaining it then, time will tell if there’s interest in sustaining it over time going forward.

There are lots of people who don’t know how much data they use but are attracted to unlimited plans anyway. The companies will probably make up for high usage from power users with breakage from low data users.

[rolandh]

royrose wrote:

rolandh wrote:

As far as the current unlimited industry trend, it isn’t as if we haven’t seen it before. The industry wasn’t interested in sustaining it then, time will tell if there’s interest in sustaining it over time going forward.

There are lots of people who don’t know how much data they use but are attracted to unlimited plans anyway. The companies will probably make up for high usage from power users with breakage from low data users.

Indeed, that’s their bet, but this was no less true back in 2007 when the first iPhone came with unlimited data on AT&T. For a time others followed. Eventually, AT&T and the industry as a whole decided unlimited wasn’t a good deal for them. All I’m saying is we’ve seen this movie before. Time will tell if the ending turns out differently this time.

[cbwahlstrom]

royrose wrote:

The companies will probably make up for high usage from power users with breakage from low data users.

I have my doubts about this. Perhaps their throttling algorithms are sufficiently robust to stop high data users from breaking the unlimited data breakage model, but in the past that wasn’t the case.

[homelessonwheels]

The difference is that now there are more users, more infrastructure, and actual cost (not to be confused with price) of providing data has gone down. MVNOs like Republic may or may not survive in the long run on simply being friendly and catering to users who need little or no data. Eventually the actual carriers will realize they can improve their bottom line by offering more competitive pricing (they’re already doing that) and by raising their wholesale pricing to MVNOs to effectively prevent them from competing.

How long do you suppose MVNO customers will be willing to pay MORE for LESS - less data, less support, less/no roaming? Sure, they market themselves as friendly and pro-consumer, but if the carriers make it impossible for MVNOs to compete on price and service, then it’s GAME OVER.