Cricket does use their own spectrum. For some unknown reason though, Cricket pulled out of Michigan and sold off their customer base & spectrum
(both built and unbuilt) to Verizon Wireless. There were other areas Cricket was supposed to expand, but either didn't have the money, or saw no long-term potential in the markets they had licenses for. The only market area Verizon added to Michigan was the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek area, and Benton Harbor/New Buffalo, which technically are part of the South Bend market, got added, which wasn't built out under Cricket, at least outside of the immediate areas of Kalamazoo/Battle Creek. The rest of the state, they added coverage where they didn't have before, and added additional coverage to areas they alreasy serve. Who knows how Cricket will do if they were to become a national carrier. I don't see it happening, but if they can build out their network in areas they have licenses, they might become a national carrier. But either Alltel or USCC might try to acquire them later on.