I had both cricket cell service and broadband 2 years ago and they were both poor. With the phone it froze often with constant dropped calls. With the broadband it was slow and I often had connection problems. Just 2 weeks ago I decided to get broadband again, for the price and no conract purpose. I wasnt able to set up the thing after ordering it online. I called tech support, and the readings were way off for the device. I was on the phone a good 3 hours to no solution. I called to speak with another tech support person hoping the last just spoke poor english and was new or something.this time I was told to take it to a store. cause I work, I had to wait a week and drive over an hour to the closest location. They.told me I had to take it to a corporate location over 3 hours away. They sell stuff, but cant fix or exchange items. I refuse to drive so much out of the way, so I called customer service yo see if I can ship it back. The first person told me no. the 2nd said I could but needed a code, along with I wouldnt be refunded the money for usage time, even though my device was broken and I wasnt using any service. Long story short, I wasted my money, dont buy from them online, and you get what you pay for. Crappy items with crappy service.

Lalapancakes89

USA

A few months ago I lost my cable service which covered my television, landline and internet hook-up. I was miserable and felt lost because I am one who spends a lot of time on the internet. I have two blog sites and quite a few sites that I do product reviews on. All of my bills are paid via the internet and in order to keep up with any of this I would have to go to the library. The down side with that is not only would I have to leave the comfort of my house but you are only allowed a half hour to surf the web....a real bummer. My daughter told me about a new store that had opened up at the mall called CricKet which offered a wireless hook-up that would allow me to reconnect to the web. I must say that it was a life saver. I intially had to pay $80.00 for the package,$25.00 of which was the activation fee. Along with it you get a $50.00 mailin rebate which means that the router was free. My payments are only $40.00 a month and well worth it to me. System Requirements: Windows VistWindows XP Windows 2000 Mac OS  X10.3.9 or higher When I left the mall I went straight home to play with my new toy.All I had to do was to plug it into my USB port and every thing else was a walk in the park.My laptop recognized the hardware and automatically downloaded the software. It took me less than five minutes to do and I have been surfing ever since. I have had it for three weeks now and the only problem that I have had is that it froze up on me twice and that was when the system was up for 24 hours; all I had to do to fix the problem was to restart my computer. For me it was well worth the investment.The package also comes with a Y-cable that I don't use but it can improve performance in poor coverage areas. Payments for service can be made at the mall store, by phone or via the internet. You can hook it up to your laptop or desk top. There are no contracts, no credit check and no cables to bother with.Unlimited broadband is at my finger tips once again and where I go it gose.

loveofnight

Baltimore, MD

A few months back I had DSL service with the phone company, and everything worked great until one morning when it just stopped working altogether.  After going back and forth with the phone company for a few days, they said that the issue was not with their outside lines, and that it had to be something in my house.  They told me that a tech would have to come out to essentially tear up the phone lines in each room of my home to figure out the problem.  After several failed attempts at getting my work schedule to fit around waiting for the phone tech, I got frustrated and gave up on getting someone to show when promised.  I managed without the internet for a little while, but it really started getting to me.  What was a girl to do, short of signing up for Hughes Net, if the phone lines inside her house were supposedly botched? The answer to that question came to me one evening while watching TV.  I saw a commercial for a company called Cricket that advertised a little USB  modem that could be plugged into a laptop or desktop computer to connect to the internet.  Hooray!  There was a Cricket store just a few minutes from my workplace.  Double hooray! The next afternoon I stopped at my local Cricket store, and within less than 20 minutes I had my A600 USB modem.  Once home, installation was simple, and I was back on the internet within a very short period of time.  Sort of. I first installed the Cricket modem on my older computer that uses Windows XP.  On that computer, pages loaded at a decent speed - not as fast as DSL or cable, obviously, but still faster than I expected from a USB modem.  However, anytime I tried to log onto any secure website (such as my e-mail or bill pay accounts), the page would not load, and I would receive a "page not found" message.  I am not a computer expert, but I am also not completely in the dark when it comes to my computer.  I tried to research my problem online to see if anyone else had similar problems; I went into my computer's security settings to see what I could adjust.  No luck.  After trying on my own, I called Cricket's tech support.  They were neither tech-savvy, nor supportive.  The gentleman on the phone was polite, listened to my problem, and then told me that he could not offer me any advice or solutions because he could not risk being held liable if something happened to my computer.  What is the point of Cricket employing these people?  The manager of my local Cricket store was more helpful than Cricket's crack tech support team.  When I told her of my problem logging onto secure websites, she told me I could bring my computer into the store, or she could have her brother stop by my house.  Lug my computer to her store and let someone who knows less about computers than I do look at it, or let an untrained man I've never met before into my home to look at it?  Such decisions, such unappealing options! In addition to not being able to access secure websites, upon installation of the Cricket modem, my antivirus program was rendered useless.  I had Norton Antivirus installed on my computer, and never had a single problem with it.  Once Cricket was installed to my computer, I could not update my virus definitions, could not run a virus scan, and my firewall settings were disabled. I decided to install Cricket on my newer computer, which uses Vista.  On this computer, my Norton Antivirus program was not compromised in any way, and I could log onto secure websites without any problems.  Those were no longer issues, but I ended up with a new set of problems. With Cricket as my internet connection, I was unable to download and install updates to my computer through Windows Update.  The update would run and run for hours before telling me that it couldn't locate an internet connection, despite the fact that the computer was in fact connected.  This happened while trying to update other computer programs, too. The speed on the Vista computer was agonizingly slow.  Speed was not a problem on the XP computer, but on the Vista computer, pages would sometimes take one minute or more to load. My experiences with Cricket have not been good, and I would only recommend the purchase of the Cricket broadband service if you have no other option.  For me, this is just temporary until I either take some time off from work to deal with the phone company tearing through each room of my house, or just suck it up and plunk down the money for Hughes Net.  Crappy internet is better than no internet.  Cricket broadband is crappy internet. **THE PROS:** **EASY INSTALLATION.**  All you do is plug it in and follow the directions.  Even if you know next-to-nothing about computers, you can install this within a matter of minutes. **EQUIPMENT COST.** Cricket often offers a mail-in rebate on this item (funds are usually sent to customer after you have been in good standing with Cricket for a minimum of 45 days). **MOBILITY.**  Can be used at home on a desktop computer, or on your laptop.  Easily switched from one computer to another. **NO CONTRACT.**  You pay from month-to-month, no penalties if you choose to cancel your service. **NO CREDIT CHECKS.**  **THE CONS:** **SPEED.  **The speed at which pages load, in my experience, has been inconsistent, seeming to vary with the operating system.  **PRICE.  **At $40.00 per month (plus various taxes and fees), you are paying as much as, if not more than, the monthly charge for DSL or cable internet service, but receiving a slower connection. **TECH SUPPORT.  **Absolutely worthless.

emjaybee1305

Oak Grove, KY

I have used the cricket broadband service for over two years now and I have to say I am no longer going to be a customer when my account comes due again.  The service in my area is fine and I dont have a problem with losing signal. I don't have a house phone and so this is a great option if you don't want a bunch of wires from routers running all through your house. If you call customer service for a problem you best pray you get someone who speaks and understands the english language.  It sometimes takes several calls to get a live person on the phone,usually you just have to say needs technical assistance.  It is a convenient option for traveling as long as you're in a coverage area and the new modem doesn't even require using a disk to set up service, My issue is this, I paid in advance for my prepaid monthly service. 40.00 plus a few dollars collection charge is a little steep now with so many internet providers,but my computer was down and I didn't need service so I paid my bill on November 19th, it was due nov. 1. It was my assumption I would prepay for my 30 days of coverage however on dec. 2nd after about 2 weeks of service my account was disabled.. I contacted customer service and the english speaking man informed me that you don't pay for 30 days of service unless you pay each 30 days at first of month. My account is what they consider full service prepaid that they figure their revenue in a year for all prepaid accounts and that's how they offer a low rate in their opinion. So for 2 weeks I had service.  Why couldn't someone have let me know I wouldn't be getting 30 days of service but instead only service until next first of month. I do not feel that is fair and with my wireless phone service I have prepaid and regardless of what day I pay my payment on it will not be due again until 30 days later.  I haven't had this problem in past because I had continuous coverage however I feel they could have offered to convert my payment to a type of bridge payment until the next due date.  I will be getting a home phone service contract now and will prefer a possible slower connection in order to insure that when I prepay for a month of service that I actually receive it. Cricket is one company that it''s nearly impossible to actually speak to someone who has the authority to say yes. I recomended cricket to a lots of my friends and clients and after this I have informed each and everyone of them and have asked them to consider also changing their internet providers as well.  One person can make a difference if they speak out and take action as we know to every action theres a reaction. Cricket wireless is very convenient to use and very easy to purchase without credit hassles or large down payments but the lack of any true customer service and the inablility of them to try and reach any acceptable plan of actions makes them not worth being invested with them long term. So a good short term fix for a short term problem but not a good solution for a long time situation.

crewsricky67

Estill, SC

I have had Cricket Broadband for my internet service since May of this year. I signed up for the "free" modem and $40/mo service. Well I got my rebate prepaid card weeks before they're estimate! Happy surprise - no hassles there. Had a small glitch installing, but the tech helped me professionally and soon I was underway. I can't see any difference in speed versus my old providers ( AT&T and Comcast. The speed is the same. Consider that there are other factors that affect your internet speed; like the website you're on and the paging ability of your computer. And the price is real - I pay $40.50 a month - no extras, no joke, and no contract! I paid more with the others - they want to tease you with a lower rate but you have to get a bundle...aaaarrrgh! And don't forget that you can take it with you for your laptop. I have a PC as my only computer and it works just fine at home! Give it a try - since there's no contract, you can quit if you don't like it! Have fun and Peace Out!  >^..^<

katrine3003

Aurora, IL

At first I thought that you only had to pay $40 for this suppose to be great broadband service, but I had to wind up upgrading to the $60 plan because the speed was horrible. I am somewhat satisfied with the speed now. Before it would crash a lot and I had to reconnect but since I upgraded, it's better. I still have to wait to watch youtube videos and stuff like that. so instead of waiting I normally just watch them on my iphone. But other than the video and previous crashing issue. it seems to work pretty well I just wish the price was a little lower.

nclophu

Lake Charles, LA

I ordered the Cricket modem on September 9th.  The CSR told me I would have coverage in my house.  Wrong!!! But that's okay, people make mistakes.  I called the next day and got instructions to return.  I returned with delivery confirmation and they received it two days later.  I called September 26th to check on the status of my refund, which is $92.99.  The woman said it was scheduled to go back into my account Sept. 28th.  It didn't. So I called that day and talked to 3 different people.  The first one with his broken English said the system was down, and to call back later.  I hung up and called right back.  This time, a rude woman said she would escalate it to a claim (?) and to call back in 5 business days.  Miracously, the system wasn't down then.  I called back and talked to a man.  He said he couldn't find it in the system that I was supposed to get my refund that day.  He said to expect it within 30 days of them receiving the modem back, which they had already received.  Bottom line is....... I was lied to several times.  They take the money out of your account within hours, but yet it takes up to 30 days to receive it back.  The product service itself I am not reviewing since I was not able to use it.  BUT the customer service itself is enough to not use it.

Candyapplelady

Toughkenamon, PA

i currently have this cricket broadband. it is quite slow, has no service what so ever, and regualrly disconnects with no notice. it does have its advantages though it is portable, very cheap, and if you dont have a phone you can text them right from your computer with the cricket broadband.

angelbabe136990

New Braunfels, TX

I spent another 84.00 for this card,I thought it would solve my wireless issues! I really did not want pay a high cable rate for the net,so  I thought this wpould work! You have trouble on web sites like hulu,you tube and any place they stream! The card will jump all the way from zero to 512,which is very anoying when trying to watch a movie! In summary.iif I knew.I would streaming pronlems and would never spent the money or "This Gargage"!!    

tomtom9808

Tulsa, OK

  This cricket broadband plugs into the side of your lap top. You get the first month free after paying the seventy or so dollars ( Price may be different in your area). Every month after that it's fifty dollars to get the internet on your laptop pretty much everywhere you go. I did not give it four stars because sometimes it will just drop you in the middle of your internet task and go dormant. This usually happens if your traveling in a car. You can get the cricket in the electronics department store of Wal mart or target or at a cricket shop, it is very simple to install and get the internet going on your computer. The only thing that bugged my husband and I was the way it flips up and down and spins around on this plastic plug, i guess it's that way so if you sit down in a chair it doesn't bump the chair but we were constantly worried that it would break off of the plug because our rowdie toddlers would always want to grab at it. Good thing the device is very tough so that get's bonus points. We bought this device when we moved to a new town and without it we would have been lost. This is a great broadband item, maybe the best.

rollbackyogamama

Pittsburgh, PA