Roundup of Announcements

nothingface_78

New member
Leap Wireless, Cricket's parent company, made quite a few announcements today thought I would round them up

Plans
  • Plans now have all Telecom Taxes and Regulatory fees included. Marketed as "True Rate"
  • No more first month free
  • No more activation/reactivation fees
Devices
Cricket intenRAB to launch a total of 15 new devices by the end of the year.
  • Blackberry Curve 8530 available for preorder(Ships August 6th) at $299 requires $60 Blackberry plan
  • Sanyo ZIO by Kyocera will be released in the fall will require $55 Android plan
  • Low Cost Huawei Android phone launch date TBA
  • Cricket TXTM8 II "later this month"
  • Cricket TXTM8 3G launch date TBA
  • Cricket Captr II "later this month"
  • Samsung Messenger Touch launch date TBA
Broadband Devices
  • Cricket Crosswave a MiFi device launch date TBA
  • Huawei 1705 modem Launches next week
  • Cricket A605 USB modem Launches next week

Broadband Plans
New Plans

  • $40 2.5GB
  • $50 5GB
  • $60 7.5GB

Cricket also entered into a 3G data roaming agreement

Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless communications services, today announced that its operating subsidiary Cricket Communications has significantly expanded its 3G data capabilities through a new roaming arrangement, which will enable Cricket to offer its customers nationwide 3G data roaming to complement the nationwide voice service it currently offers.

Today, the Cricket 3G data network covers a population of approximately 92 million potential customers (POPS). With the new agreement, Cricket's 3G data offering will grow to cover over 280 million POPS.​

The carrier for the 3G roaming is not mentioned but I am 99.99% sure it is Sprint.

Cricket entered into a Wholesale(MVNO) agreement with Sprint

Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless communications services, today announced that its operating subsidiary Cricket Communications has entered into a wholesale agreement (MVNO) with Sprint, which will allow Cricket to offer its products and services over Sprint's 3G network throughout the United States.

"This agreement with Sprint creates a new hybrid wholesale and facilities-based model that is unique in the industry," said Doug Hutcheson, Leap's president and CEO. "We believe that our ability to offer compelling 3G voice and data services in markets we do not currently serve will allow us to further establish a national brand and attract new customers for our exciting Cricket products, including Smartphones and other services. In addition, we believe that this agreement will allow us to significantly strengthen and expand our retail position and distribution relationships."

"We are pleased to work with Leap as one of many key partners we support through Sprint's growing wholesale business," said Dan Dooley, president - Sprint Wholesale. "Most importantly, we believe this relationship is beneficial for Sprint as we continuously look for ways to optimize the utilization of our network and ultimately create significant value for our shareholders."

As part of the agreement, Cricket has made commitments to deliver minimum levels of revenue to Sprint. Cricket will also realize improved economic terms as it grows subscribers added through the wholesale agreement.​

Leap Wireless to rebrand to Cricket at the Corporate Level

Given the increasing power of the Cricket brand and the planned investments the Company intenRAB to make in marketing to support its products, services and brand as a national carrier, the Company also said it intenRAB later this year to change its corporate name from Leap Wireless to Cricket. Until this change is formalized in the coming months, the parent company will continue to operate as Leap Wireless International, Inc. and its stock will continue to trade under the ticker "LEAP" on the NASDAQ.​
 
Interesting about the Sprint MVNO agreement. Must be why I just saw Cricket PayGo at a brand new Best Buy Mobile in Fort Wayne, IN today (nearest Cricket market: South Bend/Elkhart).

The BBM folks said that they can't sell the phones yet, though - maybe they did a network buildout in NE Indiana after all? Cricket/Denali Spectrum does have 10 MHz of AWS spectrum in Fort Wayne and surrounding areas, so I thought at first that they were almost done with a buildout. Leap/Cricket did have 5 MHz of PCS 1900 spectrum in the market several years ago, but that was sold to Centennial (now at&t) to build out 3G service (Centennial never launched their 3G network).
 
Also to add a couple more things from yesterday:

1. Cricket had their first quarterly net subscriber loss in like forever (8-10 years i think). This means that they lost about 2 percent of their subscriber base. This is because of about three things:
a. No new major markets in well over a year
b. Their subscriber base is VERY interested in andriod/iphones which cricket has none of and even basically delayed their android phone another quarter.
c. When you run a non contract cell phone company you MUST have customer retention programs. Cricket has little to none.

2. Even though they had a net subscriber loss their financial quarter was the best they've had in years. So that is very positive.

3. LTE plans were discussed and outlined. Although no specific timetable was given it was apparent that there are tech trials this year and market testing next year (likely broadband only not phones yet) and eventually lte will be a large part of their strategy in 2012/2013
 
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