A few questions about Cricket and phone compatibility

[zeth006]

Hey guys,

I'm about to make the jump to Cricket Wireless to take advantage of their 10gb data promotion going on. I've been looking into buying a used LG G2 and using it on their network.

Just to make sure, is the G2 a pentaband phone? Will it run fine on Cricket Wireless's network? I hear Cricket is an AT&T MNVO and they use the same bands. Could someone confirm that for me?

 

[raptir]

There are a number of different LG G2 models. Both the D800 and D801 (AT&T and T-Mobile, respectively) support AT&T's bands. A D801 may still be locked to T-Mobile though. Your best bet is to just buy a D800 and that will work perfectly with Cricket.

 

[Rukbat]

Cricket is a subsidiary of AT&T Mobility (which, until it renamed itself in 2004, was Cingular). It uses AT&T towers so any phone that has the right frequencies for AT&T should have the right ones for Cricket. The Cricket SIMs (according to the "book") will work in any phone an AT&T SIM will.

However ... you may want to read Top 428 Complaints and Reviews about Cricket Cellular first.

 

[Rodawg71]

As long as the g2 is gsm unlocked. I've got g2(D802), AT&T G3 unlocked, 2 Note 3's unlocked and a OnePlus One running just fine.

Sent from my 1+1

 

[Rukbat]

If it's locked to AT&T, it'll take a Cricket SIM with no problem. Same for TMobile and their MVNOs. The only problem is a phone for one carrier, unlocked but not able to handle the 3G or 4G frequencies that the other carrier uses.

 

[zeth006]

Awesome! I had to buy an unlock code since it was demanding a pin and I managed to root and flash recovery.

So one last q. Are the APNs changed when I flash roms and kernels? Will I be fine if I fIash roms and kernels meant for the AT&T G2 (D100) and save my stock APN settings?

Loving the network so far. No roaming doesn't seem to be affecting me much if at all. I hopefully won't have to deal with CSRs all that often.

 

[Rukbat]

Are the APNs changed when I flash roms and kernels?

Well ... you end up with the APN that's in the ROM you flashed. So I guess yes.

Will I be fine if I fIash roms and kernels meant for the AT&T G2 (D100) and save my stock APN settings?

The ROM will probably have an AT&T APN, so you'll have to change the values to the Cricket values (or, depending on the ROM, create a new APN with Cricket values, then delete the AT&T APN).

I hopefully won't have to deal with CSRs all that often.

I don't know about the Cricket CSRs - there are websites full of horror stories. Which is why I stuck with AT&T - walk into a Device Support Center and ask for something you're entitled to - like a replacement phone - and just sit back while they get one out of stock. No argument, no discussion. If it's under warranty and they can't fix it then and there they replace it. Need a SIM? Here. No charge. (I don't call CS - I'm hard of hearing, and I prefer to know the local people. And sometimes, walking into the store, you see some bargain that hasn't been advertised, like the last few of something discontinued being cleared out for a few bucks. My large first aid kit is a $5 Otter Box.)

 

[zeth006]

Yeah, looks like I'll be keeping screenshots of my current APN around. One thing I'm not sure of is what to do with the baseband. I'm pretty sure whatever rom/kernel combo I flash is going to change it. Any idea how I should proceed with that if I ever find my rom/kernel of choice?

And yes, tis tradeoff I voluntarily made. Save a few bucks and risk dealing with bad CSRs!

 

[Rukbat]

If it's a custom ROM, the baseband is whatever the dev feels like calling it. That has nothing to do with which baseband ROM it's based on. There's nothing to deal with - except that I'd make sure I had some way to reflash the stock ROM before I flashed another one.