Alpharetta, Ga. — AT&T relaunched the Cricket-brand prepaid cellular service, dropped its Aio Wireless prepaid brand, and launched new Cricket service plans to bolster its prepaid presence.
AT&T, which bought Cricket parent Leap Wireless two months ago, plans to expand Cricket’s retail presence, which currently stands at almost 3,000 stores across the county, the vast majority of which were already Cricket-branded. They consist of former Leap-owned stores and Cricket-exclusive stores operated by independent retailers. The lineup also includes former AT&T-owned stores that sold only Aio Wireless. All stores have been upgraded to a consistent new look.
The new Cricket operates as an AT&T subsidiary, as did Aio Wireless.
AT&T contended it is offering more value in the new rate plans as well as rate-plan simplicity and a 4G LTE network that covers 97 percent of the U.S. population. The brand is offering only three smartphone rate plans at $35, $45 and $55 a month after a $5 credit for using an automatic payment plan. All prices include taxes and fees with no U.S. roaming charges.
The $35 basic plan offers unlimited talk, text and data with 500MB of high-speed data, which is slowed after reaching that cap. The $45 Smart plan offers unlimited talk, text and 2.5GB of high-speed data, which is slowed after the cap to a maximum 128kbps. And the $55 plan provides 5GB of high-speed data. The top two plans also include unlimited international texting to 35 nations.
A $25 plan for feature phones includes unlimited talk and text. Cricket also offers savings of up to $90 a month for multiple-line accounts. Subscribers can get $10 off the second line, $20 off the third line and $30 off the fourth and fifth lines.
High-speed data access allows download speeds of a maximum of 8Mbps for compatible LTE devices and 4Mbps for compatible HSPA+ devices.
The first TV ad debuted yesterday during the NBA playoff East Conference finals game 1.
