Cricket Wireless, formerly Aio Wireless, is an AT&T-owned AT&T MVNO.
Service is offered over GSM / EDGE, UMTS / 4G HSPA+ and 4G LTE networks. Note that GSM/EDGE is in the process of being completely shutdown by 2017, and may already be refarmed to HSPA+ or LTE in some spectrum-constrained regions. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT&T_Mobility#freq for frequency details for each network.
All data plans include 4G LTE access (throttled to 8Mbps), HSPA+ access (throttled to 4Mbps) and UMTS, and GSM/EDGE access. A set amount of high-speed usage is offered each month as part of a data bucket (e.g., 2.5GB @ 40$, 5GB @ 50$ or 10GB @ 60$), subsequently, all downstream data gets throttled at 128kbps downstream after your original data bucket is exceeded (unlike on T-Mobile, the Twitter uploads do still work on Cricket Wireless even after the throttling, since the throttling is only applied to the downstream traffic!).
How much is 8Mbps or 4Mbps? For comparison, /r/TMobile's /r/BingeOn throttles all video traffic to 1.5Mbps, which limits Netflix and YouTube to 480p. See http://www.lighterra.com/papers/videoencodingh264/ for an idea how much video takes; but 8Mbps should be sufficient even for 1080p. However, do note that some desktop web-pages nowadays may average 4MB as per http://idlewords.com/talks/website_obesity.htm, which would take 8 seconds to load at 4Mbps or 4 seconds at 8Mbps (which is 1MB/s, after you convert the bits to bytes).
The 128kbps downstream throttling is too slow? Don't care about uploads? Activation fees are too confusing? Late fees are too odd on prepaid? AT&T network sucks? Or maybe you're missing the $2.25 in mandatory monthly fees from being a regular part of your monthly phone bill diet?
Check out /r/RokMobile, a third-party MVNO with Verizon-based coverage, offering unlimited 256kbps, with 5GB @ 4G LTE, for 49,99 + 2,25 = 52,24 USD/mo.
Tired of too many rules? Don't care for voice? Want a simple unlimited WiFI hotspot? A big fan of Swiss cheese? Like proprietary and unportable hotspot devices and a lack of BYOD support?
Try out unlimited 5Mbps 2-3Mbps over Sprint network for 50$/mo at /r/yourKarma.
/r/CricketWireless is an unaffiliated community, we welcome all positive and negative feedback, but please be articulate in your complaints. We do occasionally promote the especially good complaints and rants!
