Cricket Wireless Roaming Rates & Information

Cricket Wireless is a prepaid MVNO that is owned by AT&T and runs on its network. Cricket customers get full access to the same great coverage that AT&T customers do, and—as with AT&T subscribers—they don’t have to pay for roaming.

Check out Cricket’s roaming rates and information:

• Unlimited domestic calls and messages on all Cricket Wireless plans
• AT&T’s 4G network covers 58% of the United States
• Cricket Wireless unlimited plans include roaming in Mexico and Canada
• Cricket does not allow international roaming in countries other than Mexico and Canada

Domestic Roaming

AT&T partners with other major carriers to make sure that you have coverage when you are temporarily outside of AT&T’s network. Domestic roaming occurs when you are on a third-party network. Cricket Wireless does not charge for domestic roaming. However, the fine print Cricket’s website specifies that third-party data roaming may be at 2G speeds, which is extremely slow.

Cricket Wireless Roaming Coverage Map

With 58% 4G LTE network coverage, AT&T has the third-most coverage in the United States, behind Verizon and T-Mobile. However, AT&T’s 3G network covers 70% of the country—the best of the four major carriers. This is beneficial because 3G is the network your phone falls back on when 4G coverage is unavailable. Check out AT&T’s coverage map below.

Cricket Wireless International Roaming

Cricket does not currently offer any travel add-ons that enable you to roam internationally. That said, Cricket Unlimited plans (and $50/month+ grandfathered plans) come with some international perks, such as:

• Unlimited text from the U.S. to 37 countries
• Unlimited talk and text to Mexico and Canada (minimum 50% U.S. usage required)
• Unlimited high-speed data in Mexico and Canada (minimum 50% U.S. usage required)

The fine print on Cricket Wireless’ website states that data in Mexico and Canada may be reduced to 2G speeds. If you’re on a grandfathered plan with limited data, once you use your plan’s high-speed data allowance, speeds will be reduced to 128 Mbps until the next billing cycle.

Pros & Cons of Cricket Wireless

Cricket Wireless is a great choice for anyone looking for a low-cost phone plan on an excellent network. Perks include all-in pricing (taxes and fees are included), international perks (as discussed above), and hotspot allowances.

That said, there are some disadvantages, as well. For example, some unlimited plans limit data speeds to 3 Mbps, and some limit video speeds to 1.5 Mbps. Also, this may not be a deal-breaker, but something to remember is that all Cricket Wireless plans require an upfront fee of $9.99.

Here’s a quick visual breakdown of the pros and cons: