December 08, 2014
Allprepaidplans.com wants to offer you, periodically, information of the history of every cell phone services provider from around US. This time, we are talking a bit about Cricket Wireless, a company founded in March 1999, which it means that this year, in 2014, they celebrated a decade and a half of existence.
Even though a smaller operator, Cricket Wireless attracted in time more than 4.5 million subscribers from all the territory of the United States of America, number stated officially last time in 2011. The number seems important but no wonder if we consider that Cricket Wireless has coverage of 98 percent of the country, which means that who uses these services gets signal everywhere.
Absorbed by AT&T, works on Sprint network!
Its parent is Leap Wireless International, company which in 2012 was purchased and got under the AT&T giant for 1.2 billion dollars, but a transaction approved only two years later by the Federal Communications Commission. Even in this case a big curiosity is that Cricket Wireless uses as home network and roaming agreements with Sprint, one of the Big Four operators and big rival of AT&T. The agreement was signed in 2010 and lasts until the year that is about to come.
Mother company refused 5.3 billion dollars!
At the moment when the contract with AT&T was signed, it already passed some years from the moment when Leap Wireless International could have made another move. Back in September 2007, competing carrier, MetroPCS offered 5.3 billion dollars, more than four times the bid of AT&T for a merge with Leap Wireless International. At that moment, after two weeks, Leap refused the proposal and after less than two months from the bid was make, Metro PCS withdrew it, on November 1st.