A new site called Billshrink.com is being touted as a way for wireless customers to save money. Well that would be great if it included all wireless companies – prepaid and contract carriers. We decided to test this for ourselves using data we have for the average Cricket Wireless customer.
Based on company surveys, Cricket customers talk an average of 1,500 minutes per month — more than double the wireless industry average. And 52 percent of Cricket customers have “cut the cord” and rely solely on Cricket for their phone service. By comparison, twelve percent of all other U.S. wireless subscribers rely solely on their mobile phone (Yankee Group survey). In addition, 93 percent of Cricket customers reported their Cricket phone was their primary phone, compared to just over half of traditional wireless customers.
Here are the stats we inserted into Billshrink:
- Anytime minutes: 1500 per month
- Average bill: $45
- Text usage per day: ~15/day
- Location: Chicago 60610 (as an example)
The following is an image of the BillShrink results:
We found it interesting that BillShrink said that zero…zilch…none of the 79 plans available were better and that Billshrink actually said, “Based on what you’ve told us about your cellphone usage, it appears that you are already on the best plan!” What this means is of the four carriers included on Billshrink – AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint – that Cricket offers the better value.
To conclude, we thought we would also share the following graphic which compares Cricket with other wireless carriers.
We would love to hear what you think about our test. Please, feel free to try it for yourself: www.Billshrink.com.
Both images are available on the CricketNation Flickr site.
Mother’s Day is this Sunday and we at Cricket just wanted to take a moment to recognize all the hard working mom across the country. We hope all of the moms out there a day of family, joy and rest. You’ve earned it! We hope it turns out to be exactly the kind of day you want.
And don’t forget to call your mom… you don’t even have to wait until Sunday. She’d love to hear from you.
On behalf of the Cricket Team, for all the moms out there, we wish you a very Happy Mother’s Day!
Did you know that Americans discard approximately 130 million cell phones? Less than five percent of discarded cell phones are recycled, totaling about 65,000 tons of waste annually. On this Earth Day 2009, Cricket is proud to announce a nation-wide cell phone recycling program.
Customers can drop off their unused cell phones, from ANY provider, at participating Cricket stores or print a postage-paid shipping label from Cricket’s website (www.mycricket.com/green) and send their phones to the recycling center.
Since a typical phone contains materials like arsenic, zinc and lead, throwing out old cell phones is not only wasteful, it’s dangerous. If disposed of in landfills, these materials can seep into groundwater. If incinerated, the same chemicals end up in the air we breathe.
A portion of the proceeds from the program will be donated to Rebuilding Together. Cricket is partnering with Rebuilding Together, the nation’s leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable homeownership and revitalize communities. The focus of the partnership will be to address issues of safety and homeownership among the elderly, the disabled, families with children, and those impacted by the rising cost of living and falling social service budgets.
Cricket’s recycling program will be facilitated in conjunction with ReCellular Inc. Approximately 50 percent of the cell phones collected by ReCellular are refurbished to near-new condition or otherwise processed for resale. Rebuilt phones are packaged and marketed to users in developing nations of the world where new phones are cost-prohibitive. Products that cannot be rebuilt are disassembled and responsibly recycled. No environmental waste goes to landfills, either directly or through intermediaries, making the process highly effective in reducing or eliminating solid waste. Additional information about ReCellular and its programs can be found at www.recellular.com or www.wirelessrecycling.com.
Happy Earth Day 2009!!
