Had an interesting talk with the Cricket people the other day.
Backstory. Last November we moved my in-laws off of their ungodly expensive Sprint. They had 2 flip phones and a WiFi hotspot box. Cost them as much as buying a splinter from The True Cross every month and they still had to count their minutes. Set 'em up at Cricket with 2 Lumia 635 phones and bundled them into our plan for 4 lines total at $40 each. 2.5 GB high speed a line and with the price cut for each line after the first it was $40 + 30 + 20 + 10 = $100 flat, no taxes, no fees, no bull snot... Which you know if you use Cricket already.
For a hotspot, because they are out in the sticks and can only get satellite internet and that = Crazy $, we got a hotspot box for them from Straight Talk. Kinda sucky as it is $15/1GB or $25/2GB and no roll over. But still they saved money.
I recently gifted Maw with a 640 because she needs a bigger screen. Now we were sitting on a free line at the $40 level and not using it. The lightbulb went off over my head. Take the spare Cricket Branded Lumia 635 and add a line + hotspot. Right?
So the hotspot feature requires $50 or $60 plan... New math: $50 + $10 for the hotspot = $60/month and 5GB on that device. Add in phone lines with the "Group Save" and we have $60 for the hotspot Lumia + $30 + 20+ 10 + 0 for the lines = $120/month. Not bad right?
Here is the interesting part: The woman I talked to, and she better know because she's the Regional Manager, told me that if you have an unlocked WiFi hotspot box you can insert a Cricket SIM and use it as a hotspot without paying the $10/month access fee.
Unfortunately, the TracFone branded hotspot box that my in-laws have is locked. I'm going to see about getting it unlocked this month and next month I will just swap the SIM in, cancel hotspot on the line and bump that line to $60/month to get 10GB of tethering on it. My wife and I are paying half the extra so it is worth the bump to 10GB so we can not feel guilty about using their WiFi when we are down there.
The Regional Manager advised me this scheme (regular non-hotspot line SIM in a hotspot device) even works with the $70 unlimited high-speed plan. I assume it would also work for the $40 plan at 2.5GB/month. Plans with a high-speed cap don't go dead, don't charge for overage... They just slow to EDGE so no worries about going dark.
Obviously this is most cost effective when you are already bundling lines and getting the discounts...
[INFO]It appears that Cricket has started to crack down on the phone plan SIM without hotspot fee working in a hotspot box. They are now cutting that functionality off and sending violation of ToS notices.
Putting your phone's SIM into a hotspot box is no longer valid.[/INFO]
__________
[WARN]Shady Material Ahead - Use at your own risk. Look, this is in a big red box labeled Warning so don't say you weren't warned if something goes wrong...[/WARN]
You no longer need to Interop Unlock your device to get some hacks... Thanks to the newish Interop Tools App. Note that not all the hacks/tricks work, but oh so many of them do. W10M required to install the Interop Tools App.
See this post for downloading and installing the Tool. Maybe a good idea to read that whole thread to see what you are getting into...
Also a good idea to read this thread: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...st-your-interop-tool-registry-edits-here.html
That's where you find the registry path to unlock hotspot which Cricket blocks without the $10 monthly fee and the $50 or $60 per month plan.
Got your Interop Tools installed? All groovy?
Using Registry Browser go to: HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Services\ICSSVC\Settings\EntitlementRequired to 0
Now you can hotspot on Cricket. I've verified it works.
[TIP]I would assume if you start tethering all the time and sucking up all your data monthly, you will get monitored and possibly have your service terminated. Use your discretion. It's the sort of thing that is nice to have in an emergency. Don't be an abuser.[/TIP]
Once you are using Interop Tools, you may also find these threads of interest:
[W10M] Enable DNG Capture on Your Lumia Phone
Squeeze more out of Windows 10 Camera
Backstory. Last November we moved my in-laws off of their ungodly expensive Sprint. They had 2 flip phones and a WiFi hotspot box. Cost them as much as buying a splinter from The True Cross every month and they still had to count their minutes. Set 'em up at Cricket with 2 Lumia 635 phones and bundled them into our plan for 4 lines total at $40 each. 2.5 GB high speed a line and with the price cut for each line after the first it was $40 + 30 + 20 + 10 = $100 flat, no taxes, no fees, no bull snot... Which you know if you use Cricket already.
For a hotspot, because they are out in the sticks and can only get satellite internet and that = Crazy $, we got a hotspot box for them from Straight Talk. Kinda sucky as it is $15/1GB or $25/2GB and no roll over. But still they saved money.
I recently gifted Maw with a 640 because she needs a bigger screen. Now we were sitting on a free line at the $40 level and not using it. The lightbulb went off over my head. Take the spare Cricket Branded Lumia 635 and add a line + hotspot. Right?
So the hotspot feature requires $50 or $60 plan... New math: $50 + $10 for the hotspot = $60/month and 5GB on that device. Add in phone lines with the "Group Save" and we have $60 for the hotspot Lumia + $30 + 20+ 10 + 0 for the lines = $120/month. Not bad right?
Here is the interesting part: The woman I talked to, and she better know because she's the Regional Manager, told me that if you have an unlocked WiFi hotspot box you can insert a Cricket SIM and use it as a hotspot without paying the $10/month access fee.
Unfortunately, the TracFone branded hotspot box that my in-laws have is locked. I'm going to see about getting it unlocked this month and next month I will just swap the SIM in, cancel hotspot on the line and bump that line to $60/month to get 10GB of tethering on it. My wife and I are paying half the extra so it is worth the bump to 10GB so we can not feel guilty about using their WiFi when we are down there.
The Regional Manager advised me this scheme (regular non-hotspot line SIM in a hotspot device) even works with the $70 unlimited high-speed plan. I assume it would also work for the $40 plan at 2.5GB/month. Plans with a high-speed cap don't go dead, don't charge for overage... They just slow to EDGE so no worries about going dark.
Obviously this is most cost effective when you are already bundling lines and getting the discounts...
[INFO]It appears that Cricket has started to crack down on the phone plan SIM without hotspot fee working in a hotspot box. They are now cutting that functionality off and sending violation of ToS notices.
Putting your phone's SIM into a hotspot box is no longer valid.[/INFO]
__________
[WARN]Shady Material Ahead - Use at your own risk. Look, this is in a big red box labeled Warning so don't say you weren't warned if something goes wrong...[/WARN]
You no longer need to Interop Unlock your device to get some hacks... Thanks to the newish Interop Tools App. Note that not all the hacks/tricks work, but oh so many of them do. W10M required to install the Interop Tools App.
See this post for downloading and installing the Tool. Maybe a good idea to read that whole thread to see what you are getting into...
Also a good idea to read this thread: http://forums.windowscentral.com/wi...st-your-interop-tool-registry-edits-here.html
That's where you find the registry path to unlock hotspot which Cricket blocks without the $10 monthly fee and the $50 or $60 per month plan.
Got your Interop Tools installed? All groovy?
Using Registry Browser go to: HKLM\System\ControlSet001\Services\ICSSVC\Settings\EntitlementRequired to 0
Now you can hotspot on Cricket. I've verified it works.
[TIP]I would assume if you start tethering all the time and sucking up all your data monthly, you will get monitored and possibly have your service terminated. Use your discretion. It's the sort of thing that is nice to have in an emergency. Don't be an abuser.[/TIP]
Once you are using Interop Tools, you may also find these threads of interest:
[W10M] Enable DNG Capture on Your Lumia Phone
Squeeze more out of Windows 10 Camera
Last edited:
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