Cricket's new Unlimited Extra plan removes 8Mbps speed cap

Cricket Wireless has introduced a new Unlimited Extra plan that removes an 8Mbps speed cap that the pre-paid wireless provider had placed on all of its unlimited plans. Unlimited Extra is priced at $60 a month ($55 a month with AutoPay). The plan features video streaming at 480p (DVD resolution), unlimited talk, text and picture messages within the U.S., unlimited text from the states to 37 countries, and data access along with unlimited talk, text and picture messages to Mexico and Canada (Canada usage limited to 50%).

Once monthly data consumption exceeds 22GB, users can be throttled during periods of network congestion. For $10 a month, subscribers can add 10GB of high-speed mobile hotspot use. After 10GB is used, mobile hotspot speed drops to 128Kbps for the remainder of the billing cycle.

Cricket does still offer another plan simply titled Unlimited. This one costs $55 a month ($50 with AutoPay), but does cap data speed at 3Mbps. Cricket is offering four lines of the Unlimited plan for just $100, but again, you might want to be mindful of the speed cap. 

Because AT&T owns Cricket, subscribers to the latter are being offered a free week of the DirecTV Now video streaming app. After the week, a $40 per month charge will be automatically billed. Most telling is the warning on Cricket's website that subscribers who give the service a look-see should use Wi-Fi when viewing the app. This will help save them from using their high-speed data.

Meanwhile, those who switch to Cricket from another carrier (excluding AT&T), activate service inside a store, and sign on for a $30 a month plan or higher are eligible to receive a free Moto E5 Cruise (view image at the top of this article, phone is equivalent to the Moto E5 Play).

source: Cricket via FierceWireless