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Cricket wants to convince you that paying AT&T or Verizon $90-120 a month for a cell plan with unlimited calling, texting and a 1-3GB data plan is too much, because it can sell you an “all-unlimited plan” for $45.
Cricket this week launched its “Half Is More” marketing campaign online, as well as in print and television advertisements.
“When we go out and talk to a lot of consumers, we hear a lot of angst from post-paid subscribers,” Cricket senior vice president Tyler Wallis told CNET. “They’re not happy with the service they’re getting and they’re feeling like they’re getting gouged.”
They also might not like finding out their “unlimited use” data plan actually comes with a barely disclosed speed throttle that kicks in after only 1GB of usage, reducing speeds to near dial-up for the rest of the billing cycle.
Cricket defends the claim they offer “unlimited” data service by stating they do not completely sever a customer’s data connection when they reach the limit, or charge them overlimit fees. They just slow the service down… a lot. Cricket customers tell Stop the Cap! Cricket’s wireless Internet becomes almost unusable once they are placed in the usage penalty box.
Cricket also depends heavily on Sprint for roaming coverage outside of the small number of home markets where Cricket owns and operates its own network. For many customers, that means frequent roaming on Sprint’s 3G network, which is not rated well for its speed and performance.
Once throttled, customers are stuck in the slow lane until their next billing cycle begins.
Customers with light data needs might find Cricket’s plan an option, assuming they have good coverage either from Cricket itself or roaming on Sprint’s network.
Cricket’s campaign noticeably avoids comparing their plan against T-Mobile, which offers a $70 monthly truly unlimited plan or for ten dollars less, a 2GB plan with unlimited calling and texting.
[flv width=”640″ height=”500″]http://www.phillipdampier.com/video/Cricket Ad Unlimited 5-13.mp4[/flv]
How easy can you read the white fine print disclaimer on the white background in Cricket’s ad? Cricket advertises unlimited data but keeps its speed throttle mostly to itself. (1 minute)
Yeah, I’m getting pretty sick of the word “unlimited” meaning “for any amount of time” rather than “for any amount of activity”. Of course, people think of their phone calls in terms of “minutes”, so “unlimited calls” would mean talking for an unlimited amount of time. Except that, if it was like the data service, they’d have to say everything they wanted to say in the first few minutes because they’re going to be on mute for the rest of the month.