Cricket wireless as they announced a few new handsets plus an LTE roaming agreement that could certainly help their stock. For starters they’ll launch the Samsung Galaxy S4 on June 7th for $599.99. Thankfully, for those who don’t have $600 to burn, they’ll have a financing option that will let you walk out of store with the S4 for $59.99. That will increase your monthly payment, of course, but it will cut down on the wallet shock of shelling out that much for a phone. For those who don’t want to pay that much, period, for a smartphone, Cricket announced two more affordable Samsung models. The Admire 2 and the Galaxy Discover are nothing to write home about. The Admire 2 does run Android 4.1 and has a 4-inch display, so it’s not that antiquated. (And in any case, many consumers like the 4-inch form factor over the bulkier phones Samsung has been promoting lately.) The Discover is a throw back with a 3.5-inch display and running Android 4.0. Cricket did not announce dates or pricing on these, but expect them to be in the under $150 range. The Discover could be as cheap as $50, but probably will cost $100. (And would be overpriced at that point.) We learned a few months ago that Cricket had signed an LTE roaming deal with an undisclosed network. They announced today that they’d flip on the switch later this year, allowing LTE customers to roam onto other networks. Sprint appears to be the primary partner, sicne it is the only carrier to use LTE band 25. The Galaxy S4 will be the first roaming LTE handset for Cricket. Cricket has been aggressive not only in its announcements, but also in its marketing tactics. Along with the new phones and LTE roaming service, Cricket also unveiled its new Half is More marketing campaign aimed at the big carriers. It’s pretty neat until you take a step back and realize that Cricket’s network covers probably half the area Verizon and AT&T do. Half, indeed. ]]>
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