Cricket Wireless customers get a free 5G upgrade and no more speed caps

What you need to know

• The 8Mbps speed limit has been removed from plans allowing for unlimited speed.
• Cricket has added 5G support on the AT&T network to all of its data plans.
• Cricket has added 2 million subscribers in the past two years and now has over 12.4 million total.

Cricket Wireless, the prepaid carrier owned by AT&T, is updating its cheaper data plans with faster download speeds. Previously, LTE-connected devices on plans other than the most expensive unlimited plan were limited to just 8Mbps on LTE. As of October 29, 2021, this limit has been removed allowing customers to download at much higher speeds and putting Cricket's network performance much more in line with AT&T.

Cricket has also added 5G support to all of its plans so as long as you have a compatible phone, you can connect to AT&T's 5G network. Adding 5G and removing the old speed cap from the $30, $40, and $55 has removed the biggest weakness from some of the best cheap plans you can get. Keep in mind that video quality will still be limited to 480p on the unlimited plans but at least the $60 plan comes with ad-supported HBO Max.

Cricket is also celebrating its continued growth as a carrier achieving 12.4 million subscribers. That's two million new subscribers in the last two years. AT&T has been the fastest-growing prepaid carrier since 2019.

This news comes right as AT&T is finalizing its plans expand its 5G network with C-band. AT&T is currently using low-band 5G with spectrum sharing where it needs a little more capacity. The upgrade to C-band will give the network plenty of capacity for both AT&T postpaid and Cricket customers to enjoy fast speeds at the same time.