What Towers Does Cricket Wireless Use

Cricket Wireless was not always the best mobile service provider. Known primarily for their low costs, they weren’t necessarily notorious for having the best or most consistent coverage. However, in 2015, all of this changed. The Cricket Wireless cell phone service company was purchased by and became a subsidiary of AT&T. Ever since, the Cricket LTE bands have become faster because Cricket and AT&T have started sharing their towers.

So, what towers does Cricket Wireless use? Is Cricket Wireless a GSM carrier? In this article, we will discuss the question of which network does Cricket use in order to contrast the Cricket of the past to the Cricket of the future, and talk about the Cricket Wireless LTE Bands.

Cricket Towers

The answer to the question of “Cricket Wireless uses what network?” is, in a nutshell, AT&T. Since being bought out in 2015, Cricket and AT&T share the same towers. This is great news for Cricket, who didn’t really have a leg to stand on when it came to competing for service with all of the big league cell phone service providers. This means that you need to be aware of the correct apn settings for Cricket.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Image credits: Cricket.com

Today, Cricket LTE bands cover almost the entire United States, with the remote areas that are not covered by LTE being covered by 4G, 3G, or third party coverage. This makes the coverage for Cricket with its new towers incredibly reliable and pretty thorough.

The primary difference between Cricket as a subsidiary of AT&T and the service of AT&T itself is that Cricket Wireless is a prepaid cell service, while AT&T provides the same type of phone plans that users have come to expect from the service provider. More information about the merger can be found on Techcrunch.

Old Cricket vs. New Cricket

Many people will wonder how Cricket was different before being purchased by AT&T, and whether the carrier provides Cricket GSM or CDMA capability. Cricket Wireless used to be a CDMA network, but because they were purchased by AT&T, they became a GSM network. This makes their cell phones more universal, and means that they operate with SIM cards rather than programming.

Another major difference between the old Cricket Wireless and the new Cricket wireless are the level of service and areas of coverage. Since the acquisition, Cricket AT&T now has expanded levels of service. They offer different, competitive plans than those they had before. For example, in 2016 they introduced an unlimited plan. They also quite simply have better coverage than they did before. AT&T is known for having good coverage, and now that Cricket and AT&T share the same towers, Cricket has the same coverage.

Conclusion

Since becoming a subsidiary of AT&T in 2015, a lot has changed with Cricket Wireless, including which network does Cricket use. They have changed from a CDMA network to a GSM network, and adopted the same towers that AT&T uses to provide their thorough and consistent coverage.

By sharing their towers with AT&T, they have opened themselves up to being able to compete with all of the top dogs, as well as other prepaid subsidiaries.

 

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