PCMag editors select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support our testing.

Cricket Wants CDMA iPhone, Windows Phone 7

 & Sascha Segan Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

Our team tests, rates, and reviews more than 1,500 products each year to help you make better buying decisions and get more from technology.

Our Expert
LOOK INSIDE PC LABS HOW WE TEST
65 EXPERTS
43 YEARS
41,500+ REVIEWS

SAN FRANCISCO—Cricket Wireless wants to sell both the CDMA iPhone and Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, the carrier's vice president of devices, Matt Stoiber, said at the CTIA Wireless trade show today.

Rumors have been swirling around Apple developing a CDMA version of the iPhone, which several journalists have called a "Verizon iPhone." But several other carriers, including Cricket, MetroPCS, US Cellular, and Sprint, also run on CDMA networks and would be able to carry such a phone if it existed.

Cricket is pushing much more heavily into smartphones over the next year, Stoiber said. The company debuted the $149 Huawei Ascend Android-powered smartphone here at CTIA show.

The Ascend follows the $299 BlackBerry 8530 and the $249 Kyocera Zio in Cricket's lineup. More Android phones will come next year, but Cricket would also like to carry both Apple and Microsoft devices, Stoiber said.

Microsoft's Windows Phone 7, which will be introduced on Monday, is anticipated to initially be for high-end phones only, but Microsoft has previously said that the company will have a version in 2011 which supports 320x480 screens.That's a screen resolution used by less expensive phones.

The big question around high-end phones like the iPhone and Windows Phone 7 is whether consumers would be willing to pay for unsubsidized units on no-contract carriers like Cricket. Stoiber said Cricket has had a good response with its $299 BlackBerry 8530 and $249 Kyocera Zio, and that consumers appreciate Cricket's low monthly rates and no-commitment deals. Cricket's smartphone service plans run $55 and $60/month for unlimited talk, unlimited text, and 1GB of 3G data.

Stoiber noted that Cricket hasn't had any discussions with Apple yet. Cricket is the nation's seventh-largest carrier with about 5.3 million customers, covering 94 million Americans with a 3G CDMA network. The company has recently said it plans to go national next year, borrowing Sprint's network where it doesn't have its own coverage.

About Our Expert

Sascha Segan

Sascha Segan

Former Lead Analyst, Mobile

My Experience

I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I reviewed well over a thousand products during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S. I also wrote a weekly newsletter, Fully Mobilized, where I obsessed about phones and networks.

My Areas of Expertise

  • US and Canadian mobile networks
  • Mobile phones released in the US
  • iPads, Android tablets, and ebook readers
  • Mobile hotspots
  • Big data features such as Fastest Mobile Networks and Best Work-From-Home Cities

The Technology I Use

Being cross-platform is critical for someone in my position. In the US, the mobile world is split pretty cleanly between iOS and Android. So I think it's really important to have Apple, Android and Windows devices all in my daily orbit.

I use a Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 for work and a 2021 Apple MacBook Pro for personal use. My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra, although I'm probably going to move to an Android foldable. Most of my writing is either in Microsoft OneNote or a free notepad app called Notepad++. Number crunching, which I do often for those big data stories, is via Microsoft Excel, DataGrip for MySQL, and Tableau.

In terms of apps and cloud services, I use both Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive heavily, although I also have iCloud because of the three Macs and three iPads in our house. I subscribe to way too many streaming services. 

My primary tablet is a 12.9-inch, 2020-model Apple iPad Pro. When I want to read a book, I've got a 2018-model flat-front Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. My home smart speakers run Google Home, and I watch a TCL Roku TV. And Verizon Fios keeps me connected at home.

My first computer was an Atari 800 and my first cell phone was a Qualcomm Thin Phone. I still have very fond feelings about both of them.

Read full bio