Armed with a new logo, Cricket Wireless, now under AT&T's purview, is being relaunched to give the carrier more ground in the prepaid market. Cricket Wireless takes over where AT&T's own Aio Wireless left off after it got folded into Cricket following AT&T's acquisition of Leap Wireless.
The prepaid market has grown considerably as more budget-conscious mobile users start looking for more affordable ways to keep connected. Thanks to the purchase of Leap Wireless, Cricket now has access to AT&T's 4G LTE network to give its customers network coverage beyond that provided by other carriers, at least according to Cricket. Cricket Wireless will, of course, be assimilating old Aio subscribers, but today's announcement is more forward looking, that is, looking forward to new customers.
Aside from low, no contract rates that start at $35 a month, or $25 for unlimited talk and text, Cricket is also offering a time-limited discount for new Cricket customers. These lucky subscribers will be getting a $50 discount off most smartphones after a mall-in-rebate. Someone buying a $50 device will practically be getting it for free. But Cricket will also be rewarding those who will be sticking around, as a $50 discount off the next smatphone purchase will also be given to those who will have a record of 12 months of on-time payment.
Sadly, the announcement sheds no light on the fate of existing Aio Wireless subscribers, nor those existing Cricket customers who still have to transition to AT&T's network. There was talk about AT&T providing Cricket customers with handsets that were traded in under its Next program, though that has not yet been confirmed with this launch of the new Cricket Wireless.