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Cricket and 4G Flash Phones

L

Lindsay0385

Lurker
Hello,

I read on this forum that the Nexus 5 was able to work on the Cricket network. I recently bought a Nexus 5 from Google Play and I'm now trying to activate a Cricket Micro Sim Card that I recently purchased.

When I try to activate over the phone the representative says that they cannot activate any 4G flash phones. The store employee who sold me the Sim card didn't tell me that when I told her what phone I wanted to use.

They said that the ID number has to start with 268 or something like that and mine doesn't, so the phone isn't valid in their system. Am I out of luck?

I was hoping to use Cricket's $35 plan, but maybe I'll have to now look elsewhere for a cheaper prepaid option, like maybe T-Mobile's $40 plan.

Thanks for your help!

Lindsay
 
Cricket was bought out by AT&T and merged with AIO. You should be able to use a Nexus 5 on Cricket as a BYOP GSM device. They have a $40, 50, 60 dollar plans that can be used.
 
4G flashed phone? Did they make a CDMA Nexus 5 for Sprint or something? If it's GSM and unlocked it should work. Try bringing it into a store, might have better luck than using their Indian phone support.
Edit- just re-read the OP and see that the phone was bought from Google Play. It should work.
 
Gmash said:
4G flashed phone? Did they make a CDMA Nexus 5 for Sprint or something? If it's GSM and unlocked it should work. Try bringing it into a store, might have better luck than using their Indian phone support.
Edit- just re-read the OP and see that the phone was bought from Google Play. It should work.
Click to expand...
Nexus 5 has both GSM and CDMA radios and can be run on either AT&T, T-Mobile, or Sprint (along with any of their mvnos). Sounds like just a misinformed representative who was use to the older days when cricket was CDMA only.
 
If it's unlocked it should work, I agree with them, go into a Cricket shop, keep us posted. ;)
 
I thought it was really odd that they couldn't activate the phone. I asked to speak to the representative's manager and he said the exact same thing.

Basically, he said if I bought a 4g phone from Cricket it would work, but because I bought it elsewhere it won't. They told me to go back to the store and "upgrade" my phone.

I just can't believe I'm the first one with this issue. I'm definitely going back to the store on Monday. But, when I called the store directly yesterday, I was placed on hold forever and the women on the phone couldn't help me either, so I don't know if that will do any good.

I really wanted to get this phone activated before I have to pay for another month of service on my old phone with Virgin Mobile, but I don't think that's going to happen.
 
Instead of dealing with them, try ordering your sim card online and have it shipped to you. Then you should be able to activate it online rather than in store. Though when I try to access their site, it infinite loops me when entering the zip code :confused:
 
I would try that if I could guarantee that it would work. Since I already bought a card, I really don't want to buy another one if it won't work either.

I also want to port my number over, so I don't know if that will be an issue if I can't get the sim card to work. Would I then be able to port it over to another carrier again? I'm not to familiar with the process and I don't want to lose my phone number.
 
Yeah, the regular Cricket stores have a lot of idiots working there. Try to find one of the corporate stores near you and go there.
 
Lindsay0385 said:
I would try that if I could guarantee that it would work. Since I already bought a card, I really don't want to buy another one if it won't work either.

I also want to port my number over, so I don't know if that will be an issue if I can't get the sim card to work. Would I then be able to port it over to another carrier again? I'm not to familiar with the process and I don't want to lose my phone number.
Click to expand...

It depends on if the card you bought was a true gsm sim card, or a UICC card only designed for LTE usage on their legacy CDMA network. If it's a GSM sim, there should be no issue. You should be able to activate online using the card you have if you still have the sim card number and what not. The Nexus will work on their BYOP GSM plan since I know I have seen someone in the Nexus 5 forum who uses them, though I can't recall their username.

As for porting, that is done in the process of activation. I have not gone through the process on cricket in particular, but the activation process should include the option to port your number.
 
Try corporate. I activated my gsm/unlocked G2 on the new cricket at a corporate store. Only thing I had to do was add the aio APN and was gtg
 
jhawkkw said:
Haha, small world eh? And yeah, there are no corporate stores only authorized dealers. Which store have you gone to?
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That is too funny! I went to the store on Chili Ave, which is the one closet to my work. I've been doing some researching on other plans if I cannot get Cricket to work and I might try T-Mobile's $30 plan, but I'm not sure if I'll use over the 100 minutes that it comes with.
 
I personally use the T-Mobile 30 dollar plan. If you think you are going to use more, you can overload the account by whatever amount you want and dip into that fund at a cost of 10 cents a minute. Right now T-Mobile is running a sale to get their prepaid sim cards online for only 1 penny with the promo code "SIMDEAL".

Another really interesting option that leases T-Mobile Towers is Brightspot Mobile, which is run by Target. They have a 35 dollar plan that has 300 minutes, unlimited text and 3GB of data.
 
jhawkkw said:
I personally use the T-Mobile 30 dollar plan. If you think you are going to use more, you can overload the account by whatever amount you want and dip into that fund at a cost of 10 cents a minute. Right now T-Mobile is running a sale to get their prepaid sim cards online for only 1 penny with the promo code "SIMDEAL".

Another really interesting option that leases T-Mobile Towers is Brightspot Mobile, which is run by Target. They have a 35 dollar plan that has 300 minutes, unlimited text and 3GB of data.
Click to expand...
I bought a T-Mobile sim card using that deal as my back up if I cannot get Cricket to work. I looked into Brightspot, but I thought I read somewhere that they don't do LTE, so I ruled it out as an option.

I used the web chat on the Cricket website and they said my phone should work, but I need to go to the store to get it activated. But by the time I can do that on Monday, I'll have to pay my Virgin Mobile payment for the next month, so rather than paying for the same month of service twice, I'll wait until the next month to attempt to get my new phone activated at the Cricket store. I guess my Nexus 5 will just be a mini tablet until then.
 
I decided to just bite the bullet and drive the 45 minutes to the nearest Cricket store today and the nice store manager was able to help me out. He was able to activate the phone service quickly, ported over my number, and I only needed to manually add in the APN settings from the Cricket website for internet access.

Basically, if you want Cricket on a non-Cricket 4G phone, avoid trying to activate the service yourself online or by phone, because it is useless. The people at the 1-800-Cricket number have no idea what they are talking about. Go to a store and hopefully you'll have someone as helpful as I did. I only wish that the employee that sold me the sim card originally would have told me more about how to activate it or setup my account for me.

Thanks everyone for your help!
 
Congrats, let us know how you like the service.
 
Did you go to the buffalo corp store or one in batavia? I live in bflo and im thinking about buying a gsm phone outside of cricket and taking it to the corp store but everytime I deal with their cxs they dont know half as much as I do. Im just looking for the easiest cheapest route. My gf just bought a gs4 a few months ago cause her's got stolen and they never told her to hold off cause the network was switching.
 
Lindsay0385 said:
I decided to just bite the bullet and drive the 45 minutes to the nearest Cricket store today and the nice store manager was able to help me out. He was able to activate the phone service quickly, ported over my number, and I only needed to manually add in the APN settings from the Cricket website for internet access.

Basically, if you want Cricket on a non-Cricket 4G phone, avoid trying to activate the service yourself online or by phone, because it is useless. The people at the 1-800-Cricket number have no idea what they are talking about. Go to a store and hopefully you'll have someone as helpful as I did. I only wish that the employee that sold me the sim card originally would have told me more about how to activate it or setup my account for me.

Thanks everyone for your help!
Click to expand...
I ordered a Cricket SIM online to put into my ex-TMobile Galaxy S2 and the activation was seamless. The only thing that had to be done was to add the APN info and the very helpful Cricket agent talked me through that on the phone.
 
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