San Diego
– Cellular carrier Leap Wireless will partner
with more national retailers with new, exclusive service plans in the coming
weeks, bringing its roster of national retailers to four from two, the company
announced.
Leap offers Cricket-branded flat-rate prepaid services over its
CDMA 1x EV-DO network in 34 states, where consumers prepay for unlimited Cricket
service for a month at a time or for a day at a time with no contract or credit
check.
Earlier this year, the carrier tapped its first two national retailers,
Walmart and Dollar General, which offer the carrier’s PayGo plans. With PayGo, consumers
pay in advance for one or more days of usage at a time. Previously, the company
sold its prepaid services and phones only through company-owned stores,
Cricket-branded stores owned by third parties, and indirect retailers, mainly
independent wireless specialists.
With its stepped-up national-retail commitment, Leap will add two
new flat-rate monthly phone-based plans to the Walmart and Dollar General
offerings. In addition, two more as-yet-unnamed chains will begin offering PayGo,
PayGo top-up cards and the two monthly phone plans. The new phone-based plans
will be availably only through the four chains, one of which will exclusively sell
a new data-only plan for use with a USB
wireless modem.
With the additional chains, Cricket will offer services through
about 3,500 stores operated by national chains, up from a current 2,500. The
additional chains and services will go live during the next several weeks within
the company’s footprint.
The two new monthly plans at $40 and $45 will be available
exclusively through the national retailers. The $40 plan includes unlimited
talk and U.S. long distance from within Leap’s footprint, domestic and
international text and picture messaging, and free roaming in Cricket’s premium
extended calling area, which consists of 4,600 cities and towns serviced
through roaming partners. The Premium calling area effectively extends the reach
of Leap’s network.
The $45 plan adds unlimited mobile Web and directory
assistance. Both plans include all fees and telecom taxes, voice mail, call
waiting, caller ID and three-way calling over Cricket’s network.
A new $50/month Cricket-brand data-modem service
will be available exclusively through almost 1,000 outlets operated by one of
the new chains. The new plan will include all fees and taxes for unlimited
Internet access through a$69.99 Cricket A600 modem no activation fee. A $50 top-up
card will also be available for the modem.
“These new products are customized, cost-efficient and
channel-differentiated,” said Leap COO
Al Moschner. “Our experience over the last year in national retail with our daily
PayGo product has given us confidence to undertake this strategic and
broad-based move, which we believe will introduce our products to additional
customers.”
