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I see a lot of complaints here that could be explained with some common sense and simply paying a bit more attention. Cricket doesn't work well everywhere. In Chicago it works great. In Dogbarf Montana, it may not. But then most carriers probably don't work well in Dogbarf Montana either. Check the coverage before you buy. READ THE TOS! Most of the complaints about latency, downloads, etc can be explained because the user didn't bother to read the part in the TOS where it says that Cricket is not to be used for Peer-to-peer, web cameras, video downloads, online gaming, etc. Why? because it quickly jams the system and slows it down for everyone if everyone starts doing those things. THIS is why Verison, Virgin Mobile, ATT, Sprint and all other carriers either have a cut off at 5GB or they charge you an enormous amount for overages. At least Cricket still allows you to stay connected, they just don't allow you to continue playing WoW or using your peer-to-peer to download stolen music at the expense of everyone else. EVERY carrier stops you at 5GB or gouges you for it. Mobile broadband was never meant to replace DSL, Cable or anything else that is hard-wired to your desktop. It was designed so that people who need to send and receive emails, send text files or an occasional Youtube video or funny email attachment could do so. No service offered by any provider anywhere is designed to do hard core gaming, webcams, P2P or anything like that. Some will do it at 3AM when the system is quiet. Don't expect it from anyone at 4PM. If you get lucky, great. Cricket didn't think out their marketing well. They are appealing to the very people who will complain most about their system. They are appealing to people with bad or no credit or people who can't afford to sign multi-year contracts because their employment is spotty. Business users don't have time to sit around playing online games, have too much to lose to get sued by RIAA for stealing songs on a P2P, or sit around endlessly downloading videos all day. They hit and run with mostly text files. Thats perfect for mobile broadband. Cricket is too often the last resort for kids whose time could be better spent on things other than the internet, or losers that don't care to fulfill their contract obligations and ruin their own credit ratings and then blame others. In this economy, God bless those hard working types that need this to search for jobs, send resumes, etc. Or the low-paid military family that tries to send out emails to keep in touch with their loved ones over seas. These are the people who most need this. And the bandwidth is being eaten by some knucklehead that wants to play online games all night. Cricket is no better or worse than any other provider although they could improve their customer service and should do so ASAP. The bottom line is, do the due diligence before buying the service and if you are not happy, move on. member for 14.5 years, driveby review (so far) updated 14.5 years ago
I bought it as a temporarily solution to hold me over until I get Verizon DSL. I was fairly happy with it around 1:00pm but around 3:00pm the latency jumped from around 150 average to around 250+ then at around 6:00-7:00pm my game servers were reading OVER 1500MS latency! You can't even attempt to play at those latency's. Anyway don't buy if you plan on doing any gaming, unless perhaps you only try to use it very early morning/late at night. Can't steam youtube videos without constantly needing to pause to buffer. member for 16.1 years, 52 visits, last login: 13.1 years ago updated 14.6 years ago
Is this as fast as Cox Cable, NO. Should it be? NO For mobile broadband, it is outstanding! I can even watch my Slingbox in VERY good quality with zero dropouts. I can drive all over town listening to streaming audio. Web pages come up VERY fast, even graphic-intensive pages do quite well. So far, I am SOLD! The only bad part was walking into the Cricket dealer and having to deal with all the losers and misfits of society yelling and screaming about their phone being shut off "for no reason." Seriously, I don't mean to be a snob, but the clientele are a bunch a bottom-feeders at best. The showroom actually had an armed security guard. Can't say I have seen that at the AT&T store 2 minutes away up the street. I have an iPhone and have used AT&T for years. I guess I was surprised to see the HUGE difference in customer service (although the rep that served me was VERY nice) and the overall low-rent way they operate. I would suggest mail order to you from Cricket. No matter what, however... this Cricket USB Broadband Card is a keeper. I will do another update when I start visiting more places outside of my home areas of Tucson and Phoenix, Arizona. member for 14.7 years, 2 visits, last login: 14.6 years ago updated 14.7 years ago
My laptop is my primary computer. It is enabled with wireless internet, but I cannot get a signal where I live unless I sit on the front porch, which isn't always ideal and not comfortable at all. Since I only use a cell phone and don't have a landline, dial-up was not an option. I detest my cable company, so they were not an option, either. Since my cell phone service is through Cricket I decided to try Cricket Broadband. I ordered their cheapest package, which is $40.00 a month. Total out the door price was $143.00, with a $50 mail-in rebate. (Only after I got home and read the fine print did I learn that the rebate was only good after the service was active for 45 days. I mailed everything in that was requested and received a response that I was not eligible for the rebate since the information was received after the deadline. Go figure.) I was able to install it in the store and test it before leaving. It was fully functional when I left the store. I received a UTStarcom USB Modem. The best thing about it so far is the reliability of the network. It's always been available every time I've used it thus far. I've never lost a connection, either. The worst thing about Cricket Broadband is the mail-in rebate nightmare. Other than that, two thumbs up so far! member for 14.7 years, driveby review (so far) lodged 14.7 years ago
Used this service for about 6 months but finally got fed up with issues within the network. I have not been able to load myspace images or access my power companies web site due to Crickets network firewall. When you try and call tech support to discuss the issue, they know very little about the server side of their business and they will refuse to let you talk to the network administrator about connection/firewall problems. Using Whois and attempting to email the network or technical administrator will NOT get you a reply on network issues. Also to note.. Fox.com (the tv network), Cricket internet will not allow you to watch full episodes. This is again another Cricket network issue. Try to get help from these people and you will find better help from the family pet.. BOTTOM LINE- Network works with most web sites, but a few major ones it will not. I would rank Cricket as the bottom of all internet providers. Dumped their service as of the writing of this review. UPDATE- I finally did get a response to emails to the network/technical administrators as mentioned above. I am discussing the problems with them about their network but have not informed them that I have already fired their company as my ISP. I figured I would at least try and help other Cricket users in my area but will only converse with Cricket until my DSL equipment arrives. member for 19.7 years, 32 visits, last login: 14.9 years ago updated 15 years ago
What can I say, I'm sort of impressed how easy it was from when I asked questions before giving them my CC to now... being online without hording other wireless signals from my neighbors with a pringles can antenna. So far so good... I'll update as I use this service. Latest as of 01/25/2009: Except for a couple of hiccups over the weekend, solid connection. BTW- the service isn't capped: they toggle your connection down the more you go over 5GB's... or at least that was what the Engineer told me. I'm able to route my work VPN connection without issues as well. So far so good. member for 19.4 years, 2394 visits, last login: 1.8 years ago updated 15.1 years ago
I live in an area that doesn't have DSL or Cable service at this time so when I saw the add for Broadband connection to the Internet for only $40/mo. I thought that this was the solution I was looking for. Within minutes from purchasing the service, I was connected to the Internet. The speed is fast enough to load most web pages quickly. If you are looking to watch any video clips online, be prepared for choppy viewing. It's speed is acceptable for light to moderate usage and the connection is very reliable. The biggest disappointment is the bandwidth that they give you. The fastest speed that I have seen is more in line with ISDN connection speeds, better than dial-up but nothing comparable to broadband or DSL.. member for 15.2 years, 2 visits, last login: 14.7 years ago updated 15.2 years ago
Live near Pittsburgh, but have no broadband service available at home. Have been using Cricket for one week. Typical download speed is 500 kbps. This service is a huge improvement from dialup. It has performed flawlessly so far. Installation is easy. A $59 rebate reduces the overall startup cost to about $60 member for 15.2 years, 7 visits, last login: 11.2 years ago lodged 15.2 years ago
Very happy, I first purchased an AT$T card. It was bulky and I did not get 3G service even though I was in a strong coverage area. It went back the next day. I opted for the Cricket broadband and couldn't be happier. It set up easy, locks a strong EVDO connection at my house and is transferring on the lower end of cable/DSL speeds (400-500 kb/s). Also has been very stable (going on 1hr+ with no issues) If you are in an area with good coverage, I highly recommend it. member for 15.2 years, driveby review (so far) updated 15.2 years ago
My sonic.net 1 year special pricing contract was ending soon, so I was looking over my possibilities. I decided to go with this since it was the same price as DSL and the plus I saw was the ability to use with my notebook when driving around locally in the Fresno area. Their plan is for $40 per month (month-to-month no contract) for "Cricket Broadband" with an advertised speed of 1.5Mbps, but it is realistically 500Kbps download speed. The latency seems pretty bad at around 300ms. Normal DSL here is around 30ms in comparison. I did a trace route from Fresno CA to Los Angeles CA of this connection and it actually routes from Fresno CA all the way to Denver CO and then back to Los Angeles CA. That is not a very good network setup in my opinion. From the speed of this service it makes me think they just have one T1 installed for the local cell towers and let their customers have at it with just that. So the bottom line, until they upgrade their local network speed, only get this service if you can't find any DSL/Cable in your area or if you really must have portability for your notebook when driving around locally. member for 15.3 years, 19 visits, last login: 14.1 years ago updated 15.3 years ago
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