[iMore Question]

I currently have an iPhone 4s on AT&T. I'm looking to upgrade phones and while I'm at it to switch to a less expensive service, and Cricket looks like it might be good, but I have a few questions to sort out first:

1: Is the Cricket network the same as the AT&T one? I would get the same signal strength across LTE, voice?

2: Is it true that speed is capped to 8 Mbps?

3: The cheapest plan is $40 ($35 on auto pay as I've been told) for 2.5 GB of data. Past this 2.5 GB I've heard data is slowed down but you can also opt to get an extra GB for the rest of hte month for $10. Is this correct?

4: Is the iPhone SE fully supported by Cricket? Including Visual Voicemail for iOS?

5: If buying a phone from Cricket directly, is it possible to do it on a payment plan or is purchase upfront?

6: If I buy the phone SIM-free from Apple directly, would that phone be ready to take to a Cricket store where they would give me a SIM card and all the features would work?

7: How long does it take to activate?

8: If I get a SIM card for service for one unlocked phone, and I want to switch service to a different unlocked phone, could I just put the Cricket SIM in or do I need to have Cricket set it up?

9: Currently on AT&T, my iPhone appears to have a very high limit (if any) to the number of voicemail messages (that I see in Visual Voicemail). If I buy an unlocked iPhone and then get Cricket service for it, how many voicemail messages would I be able to keep at one time, and does it matter what type of phone I use (because my father has AT&T also, but on a Windows phone, and he has limited voicemail storage).

[Sgooter]

Some of your questions are Cricket-specific. Suggest you get on a chat with Cricket and get clear written answers to those particular questions. Then either send that chat transcript to your email OR copy and paste the transcript into a Word-type document for later reference.

[anon(5928073)]

You should get the same signal strength, but as far as the other questions go, I would contact them just as Sgooter said. They should be more than happy to help you.

[seangprice]

1: Is the Cricket network the same as the AT&T one? I would get the same signal strength across LTE, voice?

Same Network, same quality as AT&T

2: Is it true that speed is capped to 8 Mbps?

Seems to be the case from my own experience, I've never had an issue though.

3: The cheapest plan is $40 ($35 on auto pay as I've been told) for 2.5 GB of data. Past this 2.5 GB I've heard data is slowed down but you can also opt to get an extra GB for the rest of hte month for $10. Is this correct?

This is correct from my own personal experience, I opted for the 5GB plan.

4: Is the iPhone SE fully supported by Cricket? Including Visual Voicemail for iOS?

I haven't tried VM but everything else works like a charm, no setup needed on the user end

5: If buying a phone from Cricket directly, is it possible to do it on a payment plan or is purchase upfront?

Purchase up front at full cost regardless of phone.

6: If I buy the phone SIM-free from Apple directly, would that phone be ready to take to a Cricket store where they would give me a SIM card and all the features would work?

I bought the AT&T version from BB, threw in the Cricket sim card and I was up and running, no unlocking etc. Just purchase the nano from Cricket.

7: How long does it take to activate?

Depending on service ie. are they porting a number? anywhere from 2 minutes to 24 hrs. When I ported from T-Mobile/ Google Fi it took minutes.

8: If I get a SIM card for service for one unlocked phone, and I want to switch service to a different unlocked phone, could I just put the Cricket SIM in or do I need to have Cricket set it up?

Unlocked is unlocked, any GSM sim should work if you purchased the sim free version. There is rumor that all SEs are carrier unlocked regardless of who sells them. I've swapped my Cricket sim effortlessly to several unlocked GSM phones, no setup needed.

9: Currently on AT&T, my iPhone appears to have a very high limit (if any) to the number of voicemail messages (that I see in Visual Voicemail). If I buy an unlocked iPhone and then get Cricket service for it, how many voicemail messages would I be able to keep at one time, and does it matter what type of phone I u

That's a very technical question for AT&T or Apple to answer, this might be network, device or app limited.

I've been with Cricket for 6 months now (Former T-Mobile and Google Fi) and the service is flawless. Currently using/testing a SE but I've used several iPhone variants, Windows Phone and Android without issue. Personally, best bang for the buck out there with excellent service and network quality.

[macosxp]

Thank you. I was the OP btw. I did ask Cricket too and one person didn't now what they were talking about but a different one was able to give me most of the answers. Thank you, as well. Re VV they said it would be the same, I think... does nobody really leave you voicemails?

[seangprice]

I get maybe a dozen VM in a week, delete almost immediately.