Leap signed a three year long purchase commitment with Apple back in May 2012, which came into effect when Cricket began selling phones the following month. That agreement basically means Leap must buy a certain, minimum amount of devices from Apple, even if it doesn’t necessarily sell that many.

“At our current purchase rate, we project that we will purchase approximately one-half of our first-year minimum purchase commitment through June 2013 … If Apple were to require us to meet the annual minimum commitment in each of the three years of the contract term, we estimate that we would be required to purchase approximately $100 million of additional iPhones in mid-2013 above our current purchase rate, approximately $150 million of additional iPhones in mid-2014 above our current purchase rate and approximately $200 million of additional iPhones in mid-2015 above our current purchase rate” Leap Wireless

Part of the problem, Leap suggests, is the limitations of its network coverage. Cricket service isn’t available to the same extent as that of AT&T and Verizon, which can mean potential customers either can’t buy the iPhone where they live, or choose another carrier because they may need to travel outside of Cricket’s network.

As the carrier points out, “if Apple introduces an AWS-compatible version of the iPhone in the future, we will be able to sell the device in additional markets covering approximately 40% of our covered POPs.” Nonetheless, Leap isn’t counting on that necessarily happening – or, indeed, Apple agreeing to renegotiate the purchase commitment – and so is considering other strategies.

They include more comprehensive device leasing or financing programs, which would spread the upfront cost of the iPhone 5 out over a more extended period, or even just changing the sticker price of the iPhone itself. The carrier also hopes to work with Apple to boost its promotional drive, to tackle the possibility that many people might not even consider Cricket in the first place.

Interestingly, while Leap’s COO says he is “not concerned about … meeting the Apple commitment,” attempting to reassure the market during a recent financial results call, he is also putting a big chunk of his faith in another device. “I would say there was a stronger device [than iPhone 5] in our lineup” Jerry Elliot told analysts last week, referring to Samsung’s Galaxy S III.

[via WSJ]

The LG Optimus Regard is, aside from its 4G LTE support, unremarkable in any way. The display is a mere 3.5-inches with a resolution of 320 x 480. Inside you’ll find a 1.2GHz dual-core processor and 1GB RAM. Around back there’s a 5-megapixel camera. The model offers 8GB of storage space and runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The battery is a decent 1,700mAh battery, which means, depending on how you use your phone, you might end up having to charge it partway through the day.

As for Cricket itself, the company is a regional carrier with a large customer base for its prepaid service. The company offers a lot of low-end smartphones, such as the ZTE Muvemusic, as well as a few higher ones. While the phone choices are limited to lower-end devices, those looking for a smartphone without spending a fortune on a contract or higher-end prepaid plan would do well to look into the company.

Although the Optimus Regard is decent for a casual every day user who spends more time browsing Facebook than running hardware-intensive games, the price tag is cringe-worthy in comparison to the specs. Because the handset is contract-free, you’re paying the unsubsidized price. Still, despite the relatively high price and low-end specs, if you’re in the market for a 4G plan without huge costs, the Cricket/Optimus Regard combo might be the right choice for you.

[via Android Community]

Still, Cricket offered the iPhone 4S at $499 when that was Apple’s flagship, so we wouldn’t be surprised to see the same figure reappear for the 16GB iPhone 5 in a couple of weeks time. What remains to be seen is whether, like with the iPhone 4S, Cricket only offers the iPhone 5 in a subset of its covered cities.

Voice, messaging, and data pricing hasn’t been announced, though again Cricket offered a $55 per-month package which includes unlimited talktime and 2.5GB of 3G data. The upside is that, with no agreement required, you can cancel service at any time without any financial penalty.

Cricket will announce pricing closer to the point of launch, as will the other US carriers. More on the iPhone 5 in our full hands-on.

Cricket began rolling out LTE in December 2011, starting off in Tucson, Arizona. So far the company only supports USB modems, but with the latest move from Clearwire, could see some LTE smartphones on its network. Cricket are set to utilize Clearwire’s LTE network as part of a five-year deal. They’re the second company to make use of Clearwire’s LTE network so far.

Of course, Clearwire’s LTE network isn’t even live yet: the hope is to have 5,000 cell sites live by June 2013, then build towards 8,000 sites. Cricket are hoping to expand LTE coverage to around 60% of its exisiting network coverage, which should be helped significantly by Clearwire’s LTE network when it does eventually go live.

Eric Prusch, President and CEO of Clearwire said:

This long-term partnership with Cricket is a key step forward in the development of Clearwire’s wholesale LTE business model. We are very pleased to provide Cricket with additional mobile broadband resources to supplement their own LTE build and we plan to continue to actively seek new opportunities to serve the needs of other 4G providers.

Neither company has outlined the financial terms of the deal, however.

The idea behind the service is to provide the unlimited music downloads, all the while charging the owner for the wireless monthly charge, and nothing more. The result? $55 per month will get you unlimited talk, text, picture messages, data back-up, and unlimited web. Basically, unlimited everything that most people use on a day-to-day basis, but with an unlimited amount of music to download. Check out the full press release for more information.

Press Release

Cricket Debuts Muve Music Service at 2011 International CES
~ New Wireless Rate Plan with Unlimited Music Downloads Exclusively Designed for Mobile Phone ~
SAN DIEGO – January 3, 2011 – Cricket Communications Inc., a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services and a wholly owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAP), today announced it will debut Muve Music, its new wireless rate plan with unlimited music and the new Samsung SuedeTM (SCH-r710) mobile phone at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show.
For the first time publicly people will be able to see and experience Muve Music from Cricket – first announced on December 20, 2010 – a new wireless rate plan with unlimited music which has been designed exclusively for the mobile phone and does not require the use of a computer. Muve Music, available on the Samsung Suede, will be on display at CES in a variety of places including:
CES Unveiled on Tuesday, Jan. 4 from 4 – 7 p.m. at Venetian Ballroom, The Venetian
Pepcom Digital Experience on Wednesday, Jan. 5 from 7 – 10 p.m. at Caesar’s Palace in the Octavius Ballroom.
Muve Music Lounge in the Cricket Buzz Suite from Thursday, Jan. 6 – Sunday, Jan. 9 in S210, South Hall, LVCC – regular show hours
Along the strip and around Las Vegas including nearby Cricket stores
Entertainment Matters
Cricket, along with Variety, is one of the main sponsors of Entertainment Matters, the new International CES® program developed to help entertainment professionals navigate the largest, most influential technology show in the world, through exhibits, conference programs and events critical to the Hollywood community.
Media Contacts: Cricket Communications, Inc. Greg Lund, Media Relations 858-882-9105 glund@cricketcommunications.com
Amy Wakeham, Investor Relations 858-882-9876 awakeham@leapwireless.com
Cricket Cricket Debuts Muve Music Service at 2011 International CES
Cricket and its Muve Music partners Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Samsung will host a session “Muve Music From Cricket – The Business Model” on Friday, Jan. 7 at 4:00 p.m. in Room N250 of the Las Vegas Convention Center, located on the main concourse between the North and Central exhibit halls.
The Muve Music Experience
For just $55 per month, Muve Music customers will get the following features on Cricket’s nationwide 3G network:
Unlimited nationwide calling Unlimited nationwide text, picture & video messaging Unlimited global text messaging Unlimited 3G mobile Web Unlimited email Unlimited data back up Unlimited video
And for the first time anywhere in the U.S.
Unlimited full track downloads Unlimited ringtones Unlimited ringback tones
With Cricket’s Muve Music rate plan, there are no download fees and no monthly music subscriptions. Customers’ data plans will not be impacted by streaming music over the wireless network and customers won’t be required to use a credit card to purchase music. Unlimited Muve Music is included in the flat rate monthly wireless service plan.
Muve Music has a robust catalog of music content which includes the four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and EMI Music.
For more information about Muve Music visit www.muvemusic.com and for more information about all of Cricket’s products and services, including its dynamic device lineup, please visit www.mycricket.com.
About Cricket
Cricket is the pioneer of simple and affordable unlimited wireless services with no long-term commitments or credit checks required serving more than 5 million customers in 35 states and the District of Columbia. Cricket offers wireless voice and broadband Internet services over the latest technology, high-quality, all-digital 3G CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO wireless network. Cricket’s nationwide wireless voice service plans include unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited
Cricket Cricket Debuts Muve Music Service at 2011 International CES
text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance, as well as a variety of calling features and feature-rich mobile applications such as popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. Cricket Broadband provides unlimited Internet access anywhere within Cricket’s coverage areas at speeds comparable to DSL. For more information on Cricket, visit www.mycricket.com. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com.

The Suede will use a DRM-encrypted SanDisk 4GB memory card to make sure you don’t abscond with the four labels’ entire back-catalogs; tracks are apparently distributed DRM-free, but the card itself prevents unofficial copying. The handset supports 3G and has a 3-inch touchscreen; there’s also a dedicated music button to access the download service.

As with other unlimited music services, like Zune Pass, you’ll need to keep paying for Muve Music if you want to keep accessing your songs; let your subscription slip and the DRM will lock them down. Still, as offerings go this is something many users have been asking for, and if Cricket has coverage where you live it might be a solid deal.

Press Release:

Cricket Introduces First Wireless Rate Plan with Unlimited Music Included

~ Innovative, New Digital Music Service Muve Music™ will Debut at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas

SAN DIEGO – December 20, 2010 – Cricket Communications Inc., a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services and a wholly owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAP), today announced it is the first U.S. wireless carrier to offer consumers unlimited music as part of a new wireless rate plan. This product offering features an innovative new digital music service called Muve Music. It is the first music experience designed specifically for the mobile phone.

“Cricket was the first to introduce an unlimited wireless rate plan and now we are the first to introduce a new unlimited wireless rate plan that includes unlimited music. With Muve Music, Cricket is bringing together the best of wireless and music in a way no one has ever done before,” said Doug Hutcheson, president and chief executive officer of Cricket Communications. “Our recent experience with smartphones has shown us that the right products offered at the right price will be successful with value-oriented customers. We are excited and confident that Muve Music will provide a superior mobile experience for customers who want to create a personal music experience without being tethered to a computer. The result of our collaboration with the music industry during the past two years allows unlimited music downloads, ringtones and ringback tones to be included in a wireless service for a flat monthly rate. We believe the high quality Muve Music experience is the right product at the right time for value oriented customers.”

“Muve Music from Cricket is a game changer for everyone,” said Ben Bajarin, director of Consumer Technology Practice at Creative Strategies. “By tightly integrating the music service into the handset and the billing plan everyone in the value chain benefits and consumers have a complete music service where the phone is the hub not the PC.”

The Muve Music Rate Plan

For just $55 per month, Muve Music customers will get the following features on Cricket’s nationwide 3G network:

· Unlimited nationwide calling

· Unlimited nationwide text, picture & video messaging

· Unlimited global text messaging

· Unlimited 3G mobile Web

· Unlimited email

· Unlimited data back up

· Unlimited video

And for the first time anywhere in the U.S.

· Unlimited full track downloads
· Unlimited ringtones
· Unlimited ringback tones

With Cricket’s Muve Music rate plan, there are no download fees and no monthly music subscriptions. Customers’ data plans will not be impacted by streaming music over the wireless network and customers won’t be required to use a credit card to purchase music. Unlimited Muve Music is included in the flat rate monthly wireless service plan.

Introducing the Muve Music Service Experience

Two years ago Cricket, in collaboration with key music industry and technology partners, began to create new IP and design a new music experience to meet the needs of customers for whom the phone, not their computer, is the center of their digital life. Muve Music brings the functionality that resides on many online digital music services to the palm of the customer’s hand. The service also delivers innovative new features and functionality that only a wireless network and true mobile offering can provide. With Cricket’s new service there are no cables, no drivers, no synching and no complexity. Everything happens over Cricket’s nationwide 3G network to deliver a robust music experience to music lovers on the go.

Muve Music will have a robust catalog of music content which includes the four major record labels: Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and EMI Music. This ground-breaking new music service and business model was brought about through a unique collaboration, led by Cricket, between the music industry labels, as well as technology partners Samsung Mobile and SanDisk.

“When we first began working with Cricket to model this new service, we quickly realized what a great opportunity it was to develop the first-ever US unlimited music service that comes bundled with a mobile voice, text, and web plan and is fully integrated into the phone itself,” stated David Ring, executive vice president of business development and business affairs for Universal Music Group, eLabs. “There has been nothing like this product or business model ever attempted in this country.”

“Cricket has developed a very compelling experience for their customers which is extremely well integrated into the device and wireless service plan through a new business model that establishes a great approach to partnership in the mobile music space,” said Michael Nash, executive vice president, digital strategy and business development, Warner Music Group. “We’re thrilled to work with their talented team and hope their innovative Muve Music service proves to be influential as we continue to work with the wireless industry to transform the way consumers experience music on mobile phones.”

“Muve Music is a first-of-its-kind solution for US consumers,” said Thomas Hesse, president, global digital business, U.S. sales and corporate strategy, Sony Music Entertainment. “The inclusion of a premium digital music service in the wireless plan is an exciting new opportunity to expand the market for commercial digital music.”

“Muve Music is a truly new kind of mobile music experience, and we’re excited about its potential to connect fans to the artists they love in a unique and innovative way,” said Mark Piibe, executive vice president of global business development, EMI Music.

The Samsung Suede Debuts as the First Muve Music Phone

At launch, Muve Music will be available on the Samsung Suede™ (SCH-r710), marking the unique integration of an innovative new music service and a phone from a leading global handset manufacturer. The Suede is a high-end 3G multi-media device with a full 3-inch touchscreen display, HTML web browser, virtual QWERTY keyboard and an easy-to-navigate user interface. Most notably, it features a dedicated music button, prominently displayed on the front of the device, that takes customers to the Muve Music experience with one touch.

The Muve Music service also includes a new technology solution from SanDisk that’s a key part of the service. Muve Music content is downloaded DRM-free over the air to the phone. It is stored and protected on a special flash memory card. This alleviates the need for any cumbersome digital rights management (DRM) scheme and results in a greatly improved user experience, better handset performance and longer battery life.

Muve Music: Meeting the Customers’ Needs
Muve Music is Cricket’s latest innovation. It had its genesis in 2007 when the Company observed interesting customer behavior surrounding its newly launched basic ringback tone service. Within a few quarters of launch, Cricket was generating more revenue for the music industry from ringback tones than most U.S. wireless carriers even though Cricket had a much smaller customer base. Continued analysis led the Company to conclude that Cricket’s customers loved music but they were not having a good music experience thus prompting the development of Muve Music to provide customers with a way to get the music they love on their wireless phones through a flat-rate plan served by a network they can rely upon.

See Muve Music at CES

Muve Music and the Samsung Suede will debut at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, January 6-10, 2011 and can been seen at South Hall 4, upper level, Room S210 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The service will be available in January 2011, at select Cricket company-owned stores and at www.mycricket.com, as well as through select partner retail outlets. The Cricket Muve Music wireless unlimited plan is $55 per month. The Samsung Suede has an M.S.R.P. of $199.

For more information about Muve Music visit www.muvemusic.com and for Cricket’s dynamic device lineup, please visit www.mycricket.com.

Cricket has announced that as of today the Crosswave is available in all retail stores at an MSRP of $149.99. That is $40 more than we thought the thing would be. If you missed the Crosswave, the first time around the hotspot device will work with all WiFi packing devices including the iPad and iPod touch.

The hotspot supports 802.11b/g devices that run Windows and Mac OS. I see no reason it won’t work with smartphones and other things too. The hotspot operates on the 3G network cricket offers and promises three hours of use and 90 hours on standby per charge.

We’ll just go ahead and declare the winner as AT&T. Now, we’ll go ahead and tell you how it was done. PCMag went out to 18 different cities across the continental United States. They used a plethora of staff members, freelancers, and a new piece of software of their own design to put the networks to their test. Which networks were included? AT&T, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile, Sprint 3G and 4G, and Cricket. The only things that they didn’t cover was voice quality, dropped calls, or coverage areas. They admit that those are just as important, especially to most customers, but that simply wasn’t part of the test this time around.

Here’s what we’re looking at for results: AT&T’s HSPA 7.2Mbps 3G network strong-armed the wireless carrier into first place, based on the speed index. AT&T sat nicely at a 93, while Sprint’s 3G reached a 76. T-Mobile and Verizon were 83 and 77 respectively. However, things get trickier when you look at consistency, as AT&T found themselves at a marginal (compared to the competition) 86 percent consistency level. Sprint 3G was at a 95 percent level, T-Mobile at 92 percent, and finally Verizon was at 88 percent.

AT&T may have the fastest network around, but if you can’t keep your customers connected to that data, then we imagine that there’s not much to boast about here. Then again, AT&T needs all the boasting material they can get, so we imagine that if they’re paying any attention, they should run with this latest result. If you want a far more detailed explanation of how they reached their conclusions, with several more graphs for your viewing pleasure, hit up the link below.

[via PCMag]

The device has a zoom-enabled VGA camera, features a flip form factor, and is one of the more affordable on the market. Other features of the device include Bluetooth, voice dialing, text, and picture messaging.

The device also has an internal and external color display and is mobile web capable. The handset supports SMS, text, and MMS messaging. The internal battery is a 920mAh unit good for 300 minutes of talk time and 250 hours on standby. Oddly, for a device touted for its low cost design, the handset isn’t that cheap at $79.99 after a $50 instant discount.

The swivel hinge feature allows the USB connector to be flipped up and stored under a sliding cover on the modem to protect it from breakage while in your laptop bag or brief case. The modem is compact measuring in at 2.8″ x 1.3″ x 0.6″ and weighing 1.1 ounces.

The modem also supports text messaging and has LED indicators to show when it is connected to the network. The antenna is internal and the modem operates on tri-band CDMA network. Pricing for the modem is $139, before an $89 online only discount, and a $50 mail-in rebate bringing the cost down to nothing.

The plans will be added alongside the existing Cricket PAYGo product line offering unlimited daily wireless services without a contract or credit check. The plan selling for $40 includes unlimited talk, US long distance, and access to the premium extended calling area along with text and picture messaging.

The $45 monthly plan has the features of the $40 plan and it adds mobile Web access and directory assistance. The Cricket Broadband plan will also be offered in retail locations around the country with a new $50 plan that is all-inclusive providing unlimited Internet access. A Cricket A600 modem will be available for $69.99 with no activation fee to go along with the broadband service.