As the wireless wars continue to heat up Cricket Wireless (owned by AT&T) is now offering a $100 credit to those customers who switch from either T-Mobile or MetroPCS. This is no doubt a volley to T-Mobile’s incessant campaign against AT&T with its relentless pursuit of their customers.
In a recent press release, Cricket Wireless posted the top 5 reasons to switch from either T-Mobile or MetroPCS:
- More 4G LTE coverage than T-Mobile and Metro PCS, period.
- Taxes and fees included – no surprises, the price you see is the price you pay.
- A free smartphone every year with Cricket Rewards.
- Plans starting at $35 a month after $5 credit for using auto pay.
- No annual contracts.
According to Cricket the $100 Credit is only available from August 24th until October 19th, 2014. In addition, those switching will need to port their numbers from T-Mobile or MetroPCS to be eligible. The credit is supposed to be issued within 5 days prior to the end of their first billing period with Cricket Wireless.
This is a pretty good deal for those people who belong to T-Mobile or MetroPCS and do not get that great of coverage, particularly if you are interested in 4G LTE network speeds. In addition, it is nice for people wanting cheap cell phone plans to take advantage of the AT&T network without all the hassles and expenses of typical AT&T billing practices. Of course, the fact that AT&T now owns Cricket Wireless could be some cause for hesitation if you dislike the ATT juggernaut.
As mentioned previously, T-Mobile has viciously attacked AT&T in the past few years offering to pay for customers contract termination fees if they switched. Recently, we’ve seen AT&T start to fight back for their frugal minded customers with the acquisition of Cricket Wireless and bonus offers like the current $100 switching credit.
In addition, we’ve also seen MetroPCS expand into more markets and increase its market share of the cheap mobile phone plan market place. While you might not have heard of MetroPCS it is actually an MVNO that uses the T-Mobile network and is even owned by T-Mobile. It is for this reason why MetroPCS was included in this particular offer to get new customers.
With the recent new law that makes unlocking cell phones legal, in addition to the ability to port your phone number between carriers, we are beginning to see some fierce competition in the wireless industry along with many new competitors in the form of MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators) which is a boon to mobile phone customers across the United States.