Cricket to offer prepaid wireless broadband

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Cricket to offer prepaid wireless broadband
Topic Started: Sep 13 2008, 09:22 PM (200 Views)
The_Sweeper	Sep 13 2008, 09:22 PM Post #1
Phone Collector Extraordinaire Posts: 596 Group: Members Elite Member #16 Joined: June 7, 2007	Prepaid wireless broadband for $40 a month with no cap on data. http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2330339,00.asp?kc=PCRSS05039TX1K0000748 Cricket, a smaller cell phone carrier, wants to bring wireless high-speed Internet to the masses. Using a little USB modem that hooks Windows PCs up to the carrier's EVDO Rev A network, they're bringing lower-income households on line for what they call "$1.33/day." "There is nobody in the market providing wireless broadband to a low-income customer with no contract," said Cricket VP of product marketing Jeff Toig. "These are people under $50k household income, with no broadband Internet in their homes. This becomes their alternative to DSL or cable." Cricket currently has 3.3 million customers in several dozen cities. They aim to double the size of the company by 2010, with Chicago, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington coming on line soon, Toig said. The company's major business is flat-rate, unlimited voice plans, but they're looking at data services as a differentiator especially now that they're competing in some markets with MetroPCS, another flat-rate voice carrier. While Cricket's $40/month rate is lower than other cell phone carriers' wireless Internet charges, the key isn't just price. It's that Cricket is the only carrier offering wireless PC Internet on prepaid, without credit checks or a contract commitment, Toig said. Cricket's broadband service is available in several Texas cities, Las Vegas, Oklahoma City and St. Louis right now, and it's coming to all of Cricket's other cities by the end of the year. Unlike the more expensive wireless broadband services from the big cell-phone carriers, Cricket's service has no usage cap - you can use it as much as you want, and the company actually encourages you to use it as your main method of Net access from home. There are only two things you can't do: run a server or make VOIP calls. Other carriers have stressed about their networks becoming clogged with broadband users, but Cricket isn't too worried, Toig said. "We've been building up network capacity to make sure it doesn't clog up the network. We're learning our way through this," he said.



Ian	Sep 14 2008, 12:52 AM Post #2
Administrator Posts: 536 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: June 4, 2007	Not sure about "unlimited"... Throughput may be limited if use exceeds 5GB per month. Internet browsing does not include: hosted computer applications, continuous web camera or broadcast, automatic data feeds, machine-to-machine connections, peer to peer (P2P) connections or other applications that denigrate network capacity or functionality. Direct from CricKet's site. When I see the verbiage disappear I'll believe their calling the service unlimited. Especially if\when they come out with a version of their modem that can be plugged into a normal broadband router, or they come out with a relatively inexpensive router than can be plugged into their modem. What's rather interesting, in light of T-Mobile's TMobile@Home development, is CricKet's ban on VoIP with the modem. Okay, it doesn't work all that great over an EvDO connection (but it does work) and they sell cellular service, but we're talking a low-bandwidth-use situation here. Oh, and "servers" could be quickly construed as P2P or anything that allows you to access your computer from outside your computer (remote desktop etc.). Granted, if you're using a USB modem with a single computer applications for servers will be limited, but it's still something to think about. I'll have to go by a CricKet store and see what all the fuss is about. CricKet service is available here and, though I'll probably not change my internet service over from Comcast (mainly because it's 8x faster) it'd be an interesting experiment...



offthegrid	Sep 15 2008, 12:33 AM Post #3
Member Posts: 42 Group: Members Member #129 Joined: June 27, 2008	Everyone has a limit in writing or otherwise whether it is minutes or data. The worst caps point to 'excessive use' or have some other purposefully vague reference. Given that you can slip a prepaid sim into an AT&T 3G datacard and get the same 5G cap with a nationwide service for $20 or get Sprints much faster nationwide service through Millenicom I don't see much of an advantage to this deal. Millenicom's prepaid data up front charge seems a little high but does include two months of service which represent a $110 value. Prepaid has the disadvantage of little to no device subsidy but a lower price should be reflected in ongoing service rates because of that. Unfortunately the US market has decided that the user who represents all the risk to the provider should also get the best deal. Edited by offthegrid, Sep 15 2008, 12:35 AM.



Ian	Sep 15 2008, 03:53 AM Post #4
Administrator Posts: 536 Group: Admin Member #1 Joined: June 4, 2007	Well, there are credit checks and ETFs for contracts. Then again, a friend who was 18 1\2 and just had a car loan (no CC's) got a Sprint plan with no deposit and no spending limit. Go figure. One other thing: CricKet does have a lower price ($40 w\o a CricKet cellular plan, $35 with one) than, say, Millenicom. On the other hand, they have less coverage. AT&T's GoPhone internet loophole (which I use) isn't within the realm of perfect legitimacy or I would say that there prepaid really does make a difference in device subsidy; I paid $130 for my data card but the ability to pay $20 a month for service is a big win. About the whole traffic limits thing, there are connections where there really is no limit to the amount of data you push over them. It just costs more. Take a look at dedicated server providers who give you X megabits of dedicated transfer, or the Tier 1 networks that power them: X megabits per second for X dollars a month...the only limit is how fast you can transfer the data over the given pipe. You pay a lot, but you pay more for more speed, nothing else is capped.



offthegrid	Sep 16 2008, 12:06 AM Post #5
Member Posts: 42 Group: Members Member #129 Joined: June 27, 2008	Sometime in 2009 ClearWire WiMax will be livened up in both Providence and Boston and I'm going to get that right away. Pricing will come out later this month with the Baltimore roll out but is expected to be $40 to $50 a month in advance for unlimited data with 2-4mbps down and up to 2mbps up speeds initially. I'll bet a Skype phone will be available on it that works on wifi also. From what I've read multiple devices will be allowed on a single account although probably not simultaneously. No subsidy for devices and pricing set to reflect that. ClearWire is using another wireless frequency leased from IDT for microwave back haul from each tower that will have 1.66gb capacity initially. No back haul issues like AT&T has with overcapacity. Hopefully the service lives up to expectations but it will start to change the current model which now gives the best price to those that also present the most risk. I see ClearWire (the new one) as the future.


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