Does Cricket Make their own Towers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter brinks1123
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Cricket says they have their own network, but I think it's a corabination like other companies. When they came to my area they were building their own network of towers, but until then they were using Verizon towers.
 
Make their own towers? Virtually all wireless operators lease antenna space from tower companies such as American Tower (NYSE:AMT), Pinnacle Tower, Crown Castle (NYSE:CCI), or Global Signal (NYSE:GSL). Few sites are actually owned by the wireless carriers themselves. Tower companies specilize in their field and are able to lease space to several carriers on the same site, thus maximizing return on investment, something carrier owned sites are rarely able to do.

Now if you're asking whether Cricket builts, maintains and operates their own network, then the answer is "absolutely yes".
 
cricket, and other carriers, absolutely do build and maintaing their own towers. They also share towers with other providers and lease space from tower companies.
 
If by build their own towers, you mean put up their own poles with antennas on them, then yes. Definitely. If however, you meant : does cricket buy time with other networks like the big guys do to provide "nationwide network" calling plans, except perhaps only in crickets metro area? then no, they do not. In the area cricket covers, you will never use another wireless companies frequencies or network. in non-cricket areas, cricket does now offer a roaming option which you can pay per minute (5 dollars from your flex bucket for 30 minutes) and allows your phone to roam on other providers networks. it can be used nationwide in the us, as well as in some parts of canada.
 
I am not trying to slam cricket but I don't seem to understand why anyone would join a service that has such limited "free" calling area. Also .59cents per minute for roaming seems rather excessive. When cricket sets a metro area does that include all the surrounding towns or is it just that particular city ? It seems that this phone could get very expensive if you do not monitor where you are at all times.
 
Cheap with unliimted minutes and text and perfect for people that don't/rarely travel to other places or don't want to be bothered with cell calls. I would sign up if I didn't need a cell phone outside Salt Lake City (one of their markets) since I do travel (and sometimes live) outside this city Cricket will not work for me, regardless of the goodies offered.
 
$.59 is not unreasonable. if you go directly through the network you are connecting to it will probably ask to charge $1.50/minute to your credit card.

simply put if you travel often and need to use your phone then cricket is not for you.
 
I can see the need for unlimited plans but I do believe that .59 per minute is excessive. I originally posted this thread because I have a friend that just went to Cricket and he travelled just a little north of Houston and was being asked for a credit card when he tried to call me. I did some research and found out the reason why.

I guess I am from the old school of making sure I calculate my minutes when requesting a service plan. I work during the day and use the phone on a limited basis from the hours of 8 - 6pm. After that my usage really starts around 7pm. With my company discount I am able to get by quite comfortably with a 500 minute plan (and when needed there is the fair and flexible feature that allows me to buy minutes at 5 dollars per 50 (.10 cents per minute (nationwide anytime - anywhere)) for a little under 60.00 per month. Of course, my plan has vision and a few other add-ons. My nights and weekenRAB are free and I don't have to worry about my geographic location. Maybe cricket made sense when cell plans were more expensive but right now it seems rather costly. I do not travel excessively but I do not want to make sure that I set an away feature and then refill a bucket to maintain travel time minutes. However, it may work for others but I don't see it working for me.

I have advised my friend to maintain his Verizon Prepaid with a minimal amount of minutes so that he can use that phone when he travels outside of Houston. Right now Crickets coverage does not justify him losing the ability to make calls on the fly outside of the Cricket network. However, there is also the credit issue that hampers a few from taking advantage of some the descent plans that are offered by the big three.
 
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