AT&T Absorbs Cricket: What You Need to Know (2024)

The deal is done. AT&T's ingestion of small prepaid carrier Cricket Wireless closed yesterday, with the FCC issuing an extensive order revealing many of the promises AT&T made to get the deal through. Here's your guide to how things are going to change - including those who aren't AT&T or Cricket customers.

Who's Affected?
Cricket has about 4.6 million customers.

What Do They Have To Do?
Cricket runs a CDMA network, and AT&T runs a GSM network. Within the next 12-18 months, AT&T will shut down Cricket's CDMA network and turn Cricket into AT&T's main prepaid brand, on AT&T's network.

What Happens to Aio Wireless, The Current AT&T Prepaid Brand?
It gets folded into Cricket.

What will the rate plans look like?
For the next 18 months, AT&T will offer a nationwide, prepaid feature phone plan with unlimited talk, text and data (500MB at high speed) for $40. In current CricketCDMA markets, AT&T will also offer one unlimited voice-and-text plan below $40 for the next 12 months.

The FCC order didn't give details of AT&T's smartphone plans, but I'm pretty sure they'll look like Aio's current plans: $40/month for talk, text, and 500MB data, $50/month for 2.5GB data, and $60/month for 5GB data. Those plans are on par with Cricket's current prices, except for Cricket's Muve Music feature and Cricket's free international texting.

How About Muve Music?
Muve Music is Cricket's unlimited downloadablemusic feature. AT&T has an unlimited downloadable music plan, Beats Music, but it costs $10 per month over a standard plan. We don't know what AT&T will do to music pricing for its new prepaid plans.

I'm an Aio customer. What do I do with my phone now?
You'll be fine. Your carrier is changing in name only. I'd assume that Cricket will become more like Aio rather than the other way around.

I'm a Cricket customer. What happens to my plan now?
You get to keep your service plan until you suspend your service or have to switch to an AT&T-network-compatible phone. So, you'll get to keep it for a year or so.

I'm a Cricket customer. What do I do with my phone now?
Cricket iPhone owners (except for iPhone 4 owners) will be able to get an AT&T SIM card and use their existing phones.

Most other Cricket phones won't work on AT&T's network. For feature phone owners, AT&T will offer free feature phones in exchange for your old Cricket feature phone. Smartphone owners will get "significant credits" to exchange their smartphone. Don't worry just yet, though - remember AT&T will make this transition over the next year or so.

Where will AT&T's network get stronger?
The ultimate goal here is for AT&T to use all of Cricket's spectrum to pump up its LTE network. Within 12 months, AT&T has committed to building out LTE in much of south Texas. Corpus Christi and McAllen come first, followed by Laredo and several rural areas. But those won't be the only areas seeing new service; AT&T said it will start building out more LTE on Cricket's unused spectrum across the country within the next 90 days.

Where will other carriers get stronger?
As part of the deal, AT&T agreed to sell off spectrum through south Texas; in Spokane, Washington; in Reno, NV; and in rural Kansas. Most of that spectrum is AWS-1, which is used for LTE by every major carrier except Sprint. Within six months, AT&T is committed to selling off that spectrum to a competing provider. That means in those parts of the country, whichever provider buys that spectrum could have a stronger LTE network. There's also a 700MHz block in Chicago the company will sell, which will probably go to T-Mobile. That would really boost T-Mobile's in-building network in Chicago.

Did the FCC throw in a dig about Sprint/T-Mobile?
You betcha. As we all know, Softbank's Masayoshi Son is desperate to buy T-Mobile. In its analysis of this merger, the FCC threw in a completely gratuitous, thinly veiled warning against that merger. It used the example of T-Mobile's Jump plans to show how T-Mobile is a "maverick competitor" and Cricket isn't; regulatory rules look very poorly on any merger which will eliminate a maverick competitor.