Cricket one-ups rivals with 5-line/$100 plan

Another day, another new rate plan.
As has become standard practice over the past couple of weeks, a wireless carrier today threw out a new tweak to its rate plans in an attempt to counter the dozens of changes that have flowed from rivals.
Today’s change came from AT&T Mobility’s Cricket prepaid brand, which said it will now offer customers five lines of unlimited voice calling, messaging and 500 megabytes of unthrottled data services for $100 per month. The pricing builds on the carrier’s previously launched Group Save multiline discount program that was initially offered by Aio Wireless. That program provides a $10 discount on Cricket’s $40 per month plan for the second line of service; a $20 discount on the third line of service; and a $30 credit on the fourth line. With the new offering, Cricket is providing a $40 credit for the fifth line.
Cricket notes that unlike some of its rivals, its plans include taxes and fees in the advertised price. The promotional offer is set to run through Jan. 2 and is available to new and existing customers in “good standing.” Those existing customers with at least two eligible lines of service on one account will be automatically enrolled to receive the discounts.
Cricket last week began targeting T-Mobile US and MetroPCS customers with a $100 credit for each line of service that was ported into Cricket from those carriers. T-Mobile US acquired MetroPCS last year and continues to operate the brand as a standalone, prepaid service similar to how AT&T Mobility operates Cricket.
AT&T reported that a steep decline in prepaid net customer additions during the second quarter was associated with customer churn connected to its acquisition and re-launch of Cricket services. As part of that process, AT&T is looking to migrate Cricket customers from Leap’s legacy CDMA operations to AT&T Mobility’s GSM/LTE-based network.
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