Question regarding the old Cricket Wireless phone(s)

[robthomps82]

I have, and am still using, the Samsung Galaxy S3 from the old Cricket Wireless. I have the $50/month plan. When their CDMA system ceases to function in March of next year, will my phone become a paperweight? Or is there any chance of AT&T allowing the old Cricket Wireless phones with a 4g LTE sim slot on their network? The only reason I think it couldn't, and I haven't checked on this yet, is this phone may not have any GSM bands. Then again, I have heard AT&T wanted leap wireless for their bands that they use. I guess if I keep this phone til March of next year I'll find out for sure.
Update: I have looked up the bands of AT&T's, Cricket's, and Sprint's. Cricket's GS3 and Sprint's GS3 are identical so I wonder if AT&T could unlock it so I can use it on sprint? I don't know I just don't want to buy a new phone right now.

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[raptir]

The issue won't be the bands, it's CDMA vs GSM. Even if the band numbers are the same the technology is not. CDMA phones only use the SIM card for LTE, the 3G/Voice information is provisioned separately.

It's possible that you could get your current phone unlocked, but it's rather unlikely that Sprint would activate it for you. They have been activating unlocked Nexus 5s though, so it's not impossible. You'd probably end up paying enough extra after just a couple months that you would have been better off buying a new phone though.

 

[jdbii]

I have, and am still using, the Samsung Galaxy S3 from the old Cricket Wireless. I have the $50/month plan. When their CDMA system ceases to function in March of next year, will my phone become a paperweight? Or is there any chance of AT&T allowing the old Cricket Wireless phones with a 4g LTE sim slot on their network? The only reason I think it couldn't, and I haven't checked on this yet, is this phone may not have any GSM bands. Then again, I have heard AT&T wanted leap wireless for their bands that they use. I guess if I keep this phone til March of next year I'll find out for sure.
Update: I have looked up the bands of AT&T's, Cricket's, and Sprint's. Cricket's GS3 and Sprint's GS3 are identical so I wonder if AT&T could unlock it so I can use it on sprint? I don't know I just don't want to buy a new phone right now.

Sent from my SCH-R530C using AC Forums mobile app

My best guess is you have nothing to worry about. I think that Cricket would have a roaming agreement in place for its legacy devices. So you would be just using Sprint towers. Now I could be wrong, and I have seen references to Cricket is shutting down its CDMA network, but I just find it hard to believe that a relatively new phone like the S3 would become dead weight a mere 3 years after being released.

Worst case scenario, and if it does happen, there are cheap Sprint MVNO's. RingPlus Mobile and Ting come to mind. They have online serial number "check tools" and if your serial number checks you wouldn't even have to worry about unlocking your device. RingPlus's ESN check tool is here, and I've heard it's the exact same one as Ting. https://my.ringplus.net/device_validation_requests/new

 

[HotrodSueC]

We called Cricket and went into a corp. store and they both told us we would need to buy a new phone in order to use their new network now or when they stop using the system they have now. I have a Cricket Samsung Galaxy S3 that I just bought from them, they said they could give me up to $100 credit towards buying another one. What a rip-off. Now I'm trying to figure out how to unlock this one so I can leave Cricket forever. They refused to unlock it for me. What really hurts s that I bought the phone in Oregon and was told that when I moved to Arizona, if I didn't have good service (I have terrible service - barely can make a call - and never get the web) I could use this phone with any other carrier. Well that was one big LIE.

 

[jdbii]

We called Cricket and went into a corp. store and they both told us we would need to buy a new phone in order to use their new network now or when they stop using the system they have now. I have a Cricket Samsung Galaxy S3 that I just bought from them, they said they could give me up to $100 credit towards buying another one. What a rip-off. Now I'm trying to figure out how to unlock this one so I can leave Cricket forever. They refused to unlock it for me. What really hurts s that I bought the phone in Oregon and was told that when I moved to Arizona, if I didn't have good service (I have terrible service - barely can make a call - and never get the web) I could use this phone with any other carrier. Well that was one big LIE.

That is a ripoff. I'd be pretty floored myself if that happened to me. Check the Ting's ESN tool: https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...=https%3A%2F%2Fting.com%2Fbyod&token=mrIKbLOd . Or the RingPlus Mobile ESN check tool I posted up thread. You could then check with customer service and/or their forums to see if your phone needs to be unlocked as well. Out of curiosity I activated a 5+ year old iwireless (Sprint MVNO) "dumb" phone on RingPlus to see if I could do it and it works fine. It was only $1.99 for 50 minutes and no activation fee.

 

[romiust]

I was told that or read that Cricket would offer substantial credits for your phone by the time we had to get rid of our s3's, but like most of you I don't believe it. I went to a Cricket store today they offered $65 as a trade in... Probably sell mine on craigslist, but I feel sorry for the buyer, so I might not. Kinda sucks.

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[c000]

I wonder if a phone like the cdma iphone that cricket originally sold before they were bought by at&t can be unlocked and used on the 'new' gsm network cricket? has anyone tried using their original cdma cricket iphone and putting a cricket sim card in it? i'm curious if they'll unlock it to be used on their own network.

 

[mrsmumbles]

I saw an unlocking service online that listed CDMA phone models they say they can unlock to be used on any GSM network, but I have no idea what they charge.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk 2

 

[raptir]

I wonder if a phone like the cdma iphone that cricket originally sold before they were bought by at&t can be unlocked and used on the 'new' gsm network cricket? has anyone tried using their original cdma cricket iphone and putting a cricket sim card in it? i'm curious if they'll unlock it to be used on their own network.

Well, the iPhone is fairly unique in that they still ship a GSM and a CDMA model, but the CDMA model has support for GSM. The iPhone 5 band support is here:

iPhone 5: A confusing mess of network support | ExtremeTech

Now, AT&T uses LTE on bands 17 (primary), 2/4 (only in some markets) and 30 (building out). So you would not be able to use AT&T LTE on a CDMA iPhone 5.

 

[Brycen Stephenson]

just to let you know that you can go from cricket to sprint to us ceuler or other cdma commpanys and i would go to a nice ish looking place that says they flash phones and get it unlocked there

 

[cgardnervt]

have you thought about getting an unlocked GSM phone? Moto G is pretty good and cheap for what you get! Directly from Moto or Cricket..Its a good deal IMO.

 

[doumor99]

I bought my Samsung S3 october 2013 and Cricket told me the same lie, that I could unlock this phone and go anywhere.No that At&T has them they refuse to unlock the device so I paid with case and Activation $641 for a ****ty cell phone company that was bought by an even more crooked one. I am ordering a Verizon Mother board on Ebay and installing it. Bye Bye Cricket may people leave you enmass.

 

[doumor99]

After $499 and 1 year old they told me the same thing when I bought it they would unlock it because I own the phone now that crooked AT&T has them no unlock $500 paperweight next march OR buy a Verizon Motherboard around $70 and have a cell phone repair guy backup your data change the board and reload then go to Straight talk or Net 10 or Even Verizon offered a prepaid plan. Best of all its like telling AT&T to go screw themselves for being so Crooked in the first place

 

[Eli Williams]

The Moto G sucks compared to the Galaxy S3.

 

[Krista Malone]

I wonder if a phone like the cdma iphone that cricket originally sold before they were bought by at&t can be unlocked and used on the 'new' gsm network cricket? has anyone tried using their original cdma cricket iphone and putting a cricket sim card in it? i'm curious if they'll unlock it to be used on their own network.

The iphone is the only phone that will work on the new cricket network. Their website says they will give u a new free sim for the switch.

 

[kyetan21]

The cricket bring your phone checker is fake its only o see if your esn is stolen or not you cant use the s3 on crickets new network

 

[Neil Harris]

I purchased my Paper weight aka cricket Samsung Galaxy S3 from Cricket a little more than the AT&T purchase announcement. I was forced to switch my account to a "new" AT&T account with new phone less than five months of purchase. I have searched and tried everything to make the phone useful for someone else, however, AT&T has made a perfectly good phone useless.
Since I no longer require a "family plan" I can switch providers and WILL NEVER ALLOW AT&T TO STEAL FROM ME AGAIN even if the closest competitor is more money each month.