Cricket’s New Unlimited Extra Plan – Unthrottled But Always Managed Data

Cricket Wireless, a prepaid subsidiary owned by AT&T, has made an adjustment to it's top-tier unlimited data plan - removing the previous 8 Mbps speed throttle, but now always subject to network management.

Unlike it's slightly lower priced Unlimited plan, which remains throttled to 3 Mbps speeds but only subject to network management after 22GB of usage.

This switch makes Cricket more comparable with AT&T's own post-paid plans and might be good for someone looking to bridge the feature gap between AT&T post-paid and prepaid options, but it does come with some downsides.

Details, Pricing, and Limitations

Cricket's offerings can be quite confusing, as the specific policies vary considerably by the plan. The "Unlimited Extra" option includes the following policies and features:

• First line: $55/month (with autopay discount)
• Each additional Line: $30/month (no autopay discount for extra lines), up to 5 lines total.
• Network Management: All data subject to network management
• Mobile Hotspot: Available as a $10 add-on for 10GB at high speed, then unlimited 2G speeds (128kbps). Hotspot data also always subject to network management.
• Streaming: Video is capped at 1.5Mbps, good enough for SD (480p) streaming.
• International Use: Unlimited talk, text, and data in Canada & Mexico. Canada usage cannot exceed 50% of the total usage for the month.

Analysis

Since mobile hotspot use is an added feature, the total cost for nomads looking for that feature will be $65/month for one line. The Unlimited Extra feature set fills a gap between Cricket's preexisting Unlimited option and AT&T's base Unlimited &More post-paid plan.

Cricket's new plan is only $5/month cheaper than AT&T's postpaid Unlimited &More plan - but here's how the plans differ:

• Cricket Unlimited Extra has 10GB of mobile hotspot (with the $10/month addon) - AT&T's Unlimited &More has no mobile hotspot use.
• Data on the Cricket plan is always subject to network management, while on the AT&T it is not subject to network management until 22GB of data use.
• The AT&T plan comes with bundled benefits including Watch TV and a DirecTV discount, Cricket comes with none of those bonuses.
• Both plans throttle video to SD resolution.

So this plan fills a missing niche in the AT&T/Cricket lineup by providing a more value-oriented unthrottled high-speed option with mobile hotspot but no other frills.

For the nomad community, this could be a decent secondary / backup data option.