Today Cricket serves about 5.3 million prepaid customers in select cities in about 25 states, or roughly 1/3 of the United States. They are doing major adjustments such as picking up smartphones such as BlackBerry and Android. Also, Cricket is bringing in new phone plans to attract new customers. Last month, Cricket Wireless announced new rate plans along with 15 new devices. All this preparation is going into developing the proper network in order to become a national carrier. That is their goal now. Al Moschner, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Cricket sat down and answered a series of questions. In those questions, BlackBerry came up. Let’s review some of those BlackBerry questions.
A: I’m a loyal BlackBerry fan, but I’m concerned about them. They’re proprietary and they’ve been slow to the party with opening up their interface and providing the browser and HTML experience that everybody else has. They have a loyal following that will stick with them, which is their advantage, but if they ever mess that up I’d really worry. If they don’t mess with that, I think they’ll be fine. But there is capability that they need to add. Q: Will basic phones that just make calls continue to be in demand?
A: Yes. It’s mostly a generational issue. A BlackBerry is going to be in my hands until I’m no longer a wireless user. But talk to twentysomethings, and they all have a smartphone of some kind. There’s also a reason that we have a $30 rate plan. That’s all anybody wants to consume and they’re a very material part of our business. Voice matters.
Click here to read the full interview from CNet