Cricket is faster than MetroPCS, and MetroPCS is faster than Cricket

Since I don’t live in a Cricket wireless market, I have not seen the commercial referenced in this Philadelphia Inquirer article. Apparently Cricket tested two phones that both they and MetroPCS sell, the LG Optimus (M and C) and the Huawei Ascend. Unsurprisingly, Cricket came out way ahead when tested in the Philadelphia market. There’s really no dirty trick involved here. Cricket runs on EVDO, while Cricket runs on 1X. For the non-technical, it means that Cricket’s network is necessarily faster than MetroPCS’s. There is one addendum, though: this only applies to comparable phones. MetroPCS does have that whole LTE network thing.

We know that MetroPCS already has a number of LTE networks live, and it has the Samsung Indulge, an Android-powered LTE handset. In markets where MetroPCS has LTE live, the Indulge blows away anything Cricket has to offer. Of course, Cricket has no reason to mention that in their marketing material, as they’re simply comparing the two networks on the same phones. But while Cricket’s Optimus might be 10 times faster than Metro’s version, Metro’s Indulge is probably 10 times faster than Cricket’s Ascend.

Cricket will eventually answer Metro with an LTE network of its own, which will give them new ground on which to do battle. But for now, it’s pretty clear cut. EVDO is faster than 1X, and LTE is faster than them all. All other marketing material is just noise.

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3 Responses

1. ChazzMatt Says
   

   you said: “We know that MetroPCS already has a number of LTE networks live, and it has the Samsung Indulge, an Android-powered LTE handset. In markets where MetroPCS has LTE live, the Indulge blows away anything Cricket has to offer. ”

   =======

   Better clarify some more. Actually Cricket ALSO has the Samsung Galaxy Indulge. But they had Samsung take out the LTE radio. It’s just a CMDA only Indulge. So, Metro’s LTE Indulge blows away anything Cricket has to offer.

   And this is why they did not test Indulge vs. Indulge.

   
   Posted on June 24th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
2. James Says
   

   here in vegas, MetroPCS’ LTE is as fast as Crickets 3G network. Its all about the market

   
   Posted on June 26th, 2011 at 2:03 am
3. Joe Says
   

   James, I’d think that MetroPCS LTE in Vegas would be considerably faster than Cricket’s 3G network.

   ChazzMatt, clearly that’s why they did not test them. Because then it would have been a balanced assessment and not fodder for advertisement.

   
   Posted on June 27th, 2011 at 4:46 pm

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