Comments on: Cricket’s Very Limited “Unlimited Broadband”

By: David P

David P — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 08:03:51 +0000

I am surprised by some of the comments I’ve read above. I purchased Cricket broadband online, so I can’t speak to the competence (or incompetence, apparently) of the kids they hire to work at their stores. However, the site was clear as to what was on offer. The very first thing below the price was the statement about the 5 gig soft cap. I received my modem by post and it installed without a single hassle, and it works very well, with speeds that, while they cannot compare to cable, are reasonable (right now at 750 KB/s). I suppose that your level of satisfaction might depend upon what you thought you were purchasing to begin with. I have never had cause to contact customer service, as my service hasn’t had a problem. However, as a phone customer of theirs several years ago I didn’t have a problem.

By: Connie

Connie — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:51:35 +0000

I got Cricket about 2 weeks ago and have called them every single day for help. No help! I cannot load ebay or microsoft, everything else works ok, if slowly. finally I thought to myself maybe those sites are too “big” for cricket. I am having my cable company hook me up tomorrow and am dropping cricket, what a mess this has been.

And you’re absolutely right that I will not get one penny of my investment back.

By: Mark Hoochuk

Mark Hoochuk — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:18:09 +0000

First, if you want broadband speed it would stand to reason you want it for large data use. Who needs high speed to view pages and send email? I got the TOS only after I bought the service as it was only available in the hardware install files. Before that there was no fine print to read. I asked and asked again and again at the store and they lied over and over and said it was unlimited usage. I am not an ISP expert and have no ability to assume a wireless connection is not really made for heavy use. I assumed I could do all the the things the ad said and showed. It said replace your DSL cable, use it at home or on the road. It said watch video all you want. It said unlimited broadband not limited broadband and then cut to near nothing at a paltry 5gb. Really, what good is broadband if you have such a low limit. Of course they hide the cap until they have your money or it would not sell. It amounts to a scam for those, like most, users who really know very little about ISP policy. I have used many ISPs and none have done anything like this. So my ability to see trouble was limited by the fact that I never experienced such blatant fraud in ISP services before. T I am writing my rep. Forget BBB get your rep on it. That will get leap wireless to stop the lie. When you call them they are almost giddy about the limit and your screwed over attitude. Its like getting tripped in a mud puddle while they crack up laughing at you. You paid for them to do it to you. Criminal is what this is. Let some ass tell me I should have known better than to trust them. They should have been stopped long ago. I trust the law of the land and the hope that this kind of scam is banned. Just put the words 5GB limit right next to the unlimited words and see what it sells. Show the real speed after cap and the faces of users then. That would be a funny ad. This needs political attention as it is really exploiting poor people who are the main target and the least able to take the hit and the least able to know how to fight back. Cricket should just go into low income areas commit armed robbery. at least a robber is honest in his intent, takes a chance with his hide, and needs the money bad. Please write your rep and take a stand against all people like this that have destroyed moral values and made cynics of us all. We have the power yet we sleep as more and more big players take a chunk out our ass. When will it stop. I have nothing left to give to these greedy scum corporate thugs.

[author comment:] You took the words right out of my mouth, but managed to trim it to 498. Thanks for the great comment!

By: Daniel Costalis

Daniel Costalis — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:26:51 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Matt!

I omitted a lot of those things as they introduced more variables, and the post was already getting long.

Also, although I use this for web development, it certainly isn’t its intended use, and I probably realistically use about 25gig a month worth of bandwidth when I have a reliable cable connection.

The bottom line is this product they are selling is not “unlimited broadband”, it is “everyday use portable internet”.

By: matt g

matt g — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 14:18:00 +0000

Sounds miserable. In no way is that unlimited or could even be mistaken as being unlimited, practically unlimited, or even resembling unlimited.

You forgot about web development & hobby type stuff. I don’t usually have a testing server locally for my personal web work, so I test on my host’s servers. If i’m having trouble with something, I might upload the same file about 20 times. For a couple of different files. A couple of times an evening. 3-4 days a week. Or downloading/uploading source via encrypted SVN. I’m sure that just doing that in the last month has put me over a couple of gigs (this site is a beast). Backing up databases locally? Grabbing a dump of Wikipedia to run offline on your netbook? Reading several PDF datasheets and application notes for pieces of electronic equipment? This is what the internet is for, peoples. Yowza.