Cricket Wireless

Cricket Wireless LLC

File:Cricket Wireless (2014).svg
Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Wireless telecommunications
Founded	March 17, 1999 (1999-03-17) in Chicago, Illinois, United States
Founders	Leap Wireless
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia , United States
Number of locations	5,000 retail stores (2019)
Area served	United States
Key people	Angela Rittgers (president) Tiffany Baehman (vice president sales and distribution)
Products	Wireless Mobile phone
Services	Mobile communications
Number of employees	221
Parent	Leap Wireless (1999–2014) AT&T (2014–present)
Website	www.cricketwireless.com

Cricket Wireless LLC operates as a U.S.-based prepaid wireless carrier fully owned by AT&T. As of 2022, it serves approximately thirteen million customers across the United States. The company was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International and became part of AT&T in 2014 following an acquisition that integrated Cricket with Aio Wireless. In the prepaid segment, Cricket primarily competes with T-Mobile's Metro by T-Mobile, EchoStar's Boost Mobile, and Verizon's Visible by Verizon.

History

Founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International, Cricket Wireless initially targeted smaller, rural areas, launching its first service in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Prior to its acquisition by AT&T in 2014, the company had grown to approximately 4.5 million subscribers.

In 2007, MetroPCS proposed a $5.3 billion merger offer for Leap Wireless, which was ultimately declined. That same year, Cricket expanded by acquiring the wireless operations of Hargray Communications Group. The following year, Cricket and MetroPCS formed a decade-long roaming and spectrum sharing agreement to broaden their network reach. By 2010, Cricket entered into a five-year wholesale MVNO contract with Sprint, enabling access to Sprint’s nationwide 3G EVDO network.

At the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Cricket introduced Muve Music—a music streaming service bundled with select devices—which contributed to rapid subscriber growth exceeding 100,000 users shortly after launch and peaked at 2.3 million paying customers. After AT&T's acquisition of Leap Wireless, Muve Music was discontinued in May 2014 and subsequently sold to Deezer for $100 million in early 2015.

Cricket's product lineup includes a variety of smartphones such as the latest iPhone and Android devices.

In July 2013, AT&T announced plans to purchase Leap Wireless for $1.2 billion; the Federal Communications Commission approved this transaction in March 2014. Following the acquisition, AT&T consolidated its prepaid brand Aio Wireless into Cricket, creating what is known as the "New Cricket." Between March and September 2015, Cricket phased out its CDMA network infrastructure, migrating customers to AT&T’s GSM network and necessitating device upgrades. The company completed the shutdown of its 2G network by December 31, 2016.

On August 21, 2020, Cricket launched its nationwide 5G network and later announced intentions to retire its existing 3G network starting February 2022.

Coverage network

Before being acquired by AT&T, Cricket operated its CDMA network using its own infrastructure alongside roaming partnerships with Sprint and other CDMA providers. Following the acquisition, Cricket gradually discontinued its CDMA services, reallocating the spectrum to support AT&T's HSPA+ and LTE technologies. After the merger, Cricket Wireless began offering handsets compatible with AT&T’s 3G, 4G, and LTE networks. Most older devices, aside from select iPhone models (4s, 5, 5c, 5s), were not compatible with the GSM network without obtaining new SIM cards.

CDMA phones

In May 2015, Cricket was sued for marketing CDMA phones that became obsolete due to the AT&T merger. The lawsuit claimed that Cricket knowingly sold devices incompatible with AT&T’s GSM network while ceasing CDMA support. Because Cricket did not unlock phones at that time, customers were left with devices they could no longer use. The court ruled against Cricket, mandating that it unlock the affected phones or provide compensation through free service or additional data. In June 2020, a similar lawsuit was initiated by the Maryland Attorney General citing violations of consumer protection laws.

STARTTLS stripping attack

In 2014, both Cricket and its parent company AT&T came under scrutiny for intercepting and downgrading email encryption by removing STARTTLS commands, thereby weakening secure communications. This activity was initially discovered in 2013 by a security firm during an investigation of an Aio Wireless connection (a company later acquired by Cricket). Although the issue was uncovered in 2014, neither company disclosed this to customers nor responded to inquiries. The Electronic Frontier Foundation criticized this practice as detrimental to user privacy and security.

See also

• AT&T Mobility, a major subsidiary of AT&T