Cricket launches 5G home internet

Cricket Wireless is now offering Cricket 5G Home Internet starting at $45 per month for existing customers with auto-pay. The service promises predictable pricing, no annual contracts, and download speeds between 90 to 300 Mbps.

“Customers increasingly want the convenience of having their wireless and home internet services with one provider”

What is fixed-wireless access

Cricket's service uses fixed-wireless access (FWA), which taps into excess 5G network capacity to deliver broadband speeds. This technology has been growing in popularity across the US as an alternative to fiber.

AT&T already offers similar service

AT&T launched AT&T Internet Air in 2023 to compete with T-Mobile and Verizon's 5G home broadband offerings. Cricket's new service expands this technology to AT&T's prepaid brand.

Cricket spotted testing service in 2024

Wave7 Research documented Cricket offering a variant of AT&T Internet Air at select stores as early as November 2024. The research firm has tracked this offering in prepaid reports for 22 months.

“This has been covered and documented in every Wave7 prepaid report for the last 22 months”

Bundle pricing for new customers

New customers can bundle Cricket's wireless plan with 5G home internet for $75 per month. Standalone home internet costs $65 per month without auto-pay. Cricket Wireless already offers the lowest average price per line at just over $30 per month.

Speed and latency trade-offs

Cricket 5G Home Internet offers unlimited data with upload speeds between 8 to 30 Mbps and latency of 30 to 65 milliseconds, higher than the 9 millisecond average for home broadband. For faster gigabit speeds, Cricket offers Quantum Fiber from AT&T in select areas.

Equipment fee and setup requirements

Customers need to pay a one-time $49.99 fee for the gateway equipment to receive 5G access at home. Setup takes less than 15 minutes. The service isn't available everywhere, so customers should check Cricket's service map.

Network congestion throttling policy

Cricket reserves the right to reduce speeds for at least 30 minutes if a customer's usage contributes to network congestion. The carrier may also temporarily slow data speeds if the network is busy.

“In rare cases, if your usage is contributing to congestion on the network, Cricket will greatly reduce your speed for a min. of 30 min”