Switching Cell Phone Carriers

I have been a loyal Verizon Wireless customer for a number of years, but I have finally had enough of two year contracts. I firmly believe WiMax will change the cell phone landscape and free us from the shackles of the big wireless providers. However, that time is not now.

With my contract ending soon I decided to give Cricket a shot. I will admit to some anxiety about using Cricket. I have always considered it a network for collage students who did not need a mission critical communication system. My son has used Cricket for years so I thought I would give it a try.




My reasoning was this.

1. Unlimited talk time in a Cricket area
2. Unlimited text and pic messages
3. Access to Nationwide roaming
4. Unlimited National long distance calls
5. Extremely attractive low monthly rate without a longterm contract
   

I realized I was giving up the Verizon network which has served me well, and I would not have a large selection of phones. However, I wanted a new phone, my trusty Razor had served me well but I wanted newer technology. I was not interested in signing a new contract so I was going to have to pay full price for the phone no matter which provider I selected.

I reviewed the plans offered by all the major carriers. All wanted one to two year contracts unless I wanted to go with some kind of limited prepay plan. All of which was unsatisfactory to me. Cricket offered the plans that were most appealing to me, and were a good fit for my current needs.

I signed up for the Cricket $55 a month plan that gave me all of the features listed above, 100 minutes a month of Nationwide roaming, and unlimited Web access. I signed up for the service and bought the brand new Kyocera Lingo from the Cricket web site. I was a little nervous about buying a phone sight unseen but I thought if I did not like phone I could exchange it at one of the local Cricket stores.

The phone arrived and I activated the service. This was a straight forward process and I was up and running in about 10 minutes. In my local area I found the signal to excellent. Voice was crisp and clear and text and picture messaging worked without issue. This would be expected in my home area, but I wondered how would the phone and system work on the road? I would not have to wait long as I was attending a conference in Phoenix that very week.

My first stop was DFW in Dallas. After I deplaned I turned on my phone and noticed I was in a roaming area. I though this was a little odd so I checked the coverage map on the Cricket web site and found that Dallas was not a Cricket area. I decided to make a call to see how the roaming system worked. The call went through without issue and the quality was excellent. The call used 2 minutes of my 100 minute allotment which should be plenty for my needs. Text messaging still worked fine but mobile web was off line as I was not in a Cricket area.

Upon arrival in Phoenix I found I was once again in a Cricket service area. All services worked fine and the call quality was once again excellent. The more I used the phone in Phoenix the greater my comfort level with the Cricket system.

The only negative I have found while using Cricket so far is that my Google calendar alerts do not work with the Cricket service. This is not a deficiency on Crickets part, but rather Google does not support Cricket. Perhaps this will change in the future as Cricket adds more services.

Speaking of services, I would like to see Cricket provide GPS services so Google maps would work. I would not mind paying for this service because I think it would be a real value add to my overall communications package. The Cricket web site says they are working on rolling GPS out so hopefully I will not have to wait long.