Acceptable Use Policy

Revised November 5, 2017
Cricket Wireless LLC ("Cricket," "we," "us," or "our") has created this Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") to encourage the responsible and reasonable use of Cricket's networks, systems, services, websites and products (collectively, the "Cricket Network and Services") by the users ("Users") of the Cricket Network and Services. By using the Cricket Network and Services, you agree to be bound by the terms of this AUP. Cricket reserves the right to change or modify this AUP at any time without advance notice, with any such changes or modifications effective when posted to Cricket's website, www.cricketwireless.com. Use of the Cricket Network and Services after any such change or modification constitutes your acceptance of the change or modification to this AUP. "Device" means any compatible basic phone, smartphone, or tablet that we or a Cricket authorized retail location provide or sell to you, or you provide, and we authorize you to use with a Cricket SIM card on your account.

DATA SERVICES

Data Speeds on All Plans

High-speed data access on Cricket's network allows download speeds of a maximum 8 Mbps for compatible 4G LTE Devices and 4 Mbps for compatible 4G HSPA+ Devices.

Reduced Data Speeds on $30/2 GB, and $40/5 GB Data Plans

Cricket's $30/2 GB, and $40/5 GB rate plans include 2 GB, and 5 GB, of high-speed data access, respectively, that enables you to browse, download and stream at full speeds (among other factors, your data speeds will depend on your Device type and available coverage (e.g., 2G, 3G, 4G, 4G LTE) until your high-speed data access is used. If you run out of high-speed data access during any monthly service period, your data access speeds will be reduced to a maximum 128 kbps until the end of your monthly service period. Once you begin your next month of service, your high-speed data access will reset and you will once again have access to download speeds up to 4 Mbps on our 4G HSPA+ service or up to 8 Mbps with our 4G LTE service. If you are a current Cricket customer you can see how much high-speed data access is included with your plan and how much you have used by logging into your account using the myCricket app on your smartphone or by accessing your account online at www.cricketwireless.com/myaccount; we will also notify you by text message when you have used approximately 75% of the high-speed data access allocated to your plan during the monthly service period. If you are not a current Cricket customer you can see how much high-speed data access is included in our current rate plan offerings by visiting to www.cricketwireless.com/cell-phone-plans. Starting April 2, 2017, and for all rate plans, Cricket will begin launching Stream More, a feature which helps you save data when watching videos by streaming certain higher-definition videos at standard definition quality, similar to DVD (about 480p). Cricket will begin activating Stream More starting April 2, 2017, and continue during the coming months. Once activated, you may turn it off or back on at any time. Learn how. To learn more about when Cricket will turn on Stream More for you, visit Important Information Regarding Data Speed, Usage and Network Management. For more information on Stream More or Cricket's mobile broadband service visit www.cricketwireless.com/mobilebroadband.

Using Wi-Fi can help you avoid reduced speeds. Speeds are not reduced while connected via Wi-Fi, and data activity over Wi-Fi does not count toward the high speed data usage threshold. Please consider using your Cricket Wi-Fi app to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots.

Mobile Broadband Information

Please visit Cricket's Mobile Broadband Information page which provides information about network practices, performance characteristics, and commercial terms applicable to our mobile broadband Internet access services, consistent with the Federal Communications Commission's Open Internet rules.

Measuring Data Usage

Certain activities, such as downloading a full length movie or downloading large quantities of music files use more data. Consider the following estimate in determining how much high speed access is sufficient for you: One (1) Gigabyte (GB) of data is enough data to send or receive approximately 1000 emails with attachments, 500 web page views, 400 Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest posts with pictures, 30 app downloads, 15 hours of streaming music and 5 hours of streaming video each month. Actual usage will vary.

Wi-Fi access does not count against your high speed data access. Please consider using your Cricket Wi-Fi app to connect to Wi-Fi hotspots.

Purchasing More High-Speed Data Access

If you have used all of your high-speed data access and you need more high-speed access before your next monthly service period, you can purchase additional high-speed data access for use during your current month's service period by logging into your Cricket account from your Device or by visiting us online at www.cricketwireless.com/myaccount.

Acceptable Data Uses

Cricket's data services are intended to be used with a Device for the following permitted activities: (a) web browsing; (b) email; (c) internet access; (d) uploading and downloading ordinary applications and content to and from the Internet; and (e) using applications and content without excessively contributing to network congestion. You agree that Cricket may engage in any reasonable network management practice and that you will use Cricket's data services only for these Acceptable Data Uses.

Prohibited Data Uses

Cricket's data services are not intended to be used in any manner which has any of the following effects and such use is prohibited if in Cricket's sole discretion it: (a) conflicts with applicable law; (b) hinders other customers' access to the wireless network; (c) compromises network security or capacity; (d) excessively and disproportionately contributes to network congestion; (e) adversely impacts network service levels or legitimate data flows; (f) degrades network performance; (g) causes harm to the network or other customers; (h) is resold either alone or as part of any other good or service; (i) tethers a Device to any other device (such as a computer, smartphone, other phones, eBook or eReader, media player, laptop, notebook, tablet, mobile hotspots, gaming consoles, or other devices with similar functions) in any manner, including, without limitation, through use of connection kits, applications, devices or accessories (using wired or wireless technology) unless you have subscribed to a Service plan with a limited high-speed data allowance and a feature offered specifically for tethering; (j) requires a specific Service plan or feature for that particular use and you have not subscribed to the required Service plan or feature; or (k) is excessive or unreasonable.

Prohibited SIM Card Uses

Your Device uses a Cricket SIM Card to access our data services. You are prohibited from inserting a Cricket SIM Card into a device other than a Cricket authorized phone, smartphone, or tablet Device to access our data services.

Examples of Prohibited Data Uses

Cricket's data services may not be used in any manner that defeats, obstructs or penetrates, or attempts to defeat, obstruct or penetrate the security measures of our wireless network or systems, or another entity's network or systems; that accesses, or attempts to access without authority, the accounts of others; or that adversely affects the ability of other people or systems to use Cricket's wireless services or other parties' Internet-based resources. For example, this includes, but is not limited to, malicious software or "malware" that is designed, intentionally or unintentionally, to infiltrate a network or computer system such as spyware, worms, Trojan horses, rootkits, and/or crimeware; "denial of service" attacks against a network host or individual user; and "spam" or unsolicited commercial or bulk email (or activities that have the effect of facilitating unsolicited commercial email or unsolicited bulk email).

Cricket's data services may not be used in any manner that has the effect of excessively and disproportionately contributing to network congestion, hindering other customers' access to the network, or degrading network performance by maintaining a sustained or continuous wireless data service connection or active wireless Internet connection. For example, this includes, but is not limited to, server devices or host computer applications such as continuous Web camera posts or broadcasts, automatic data feeds, or automated machine-to-machine connections; "auto-responders," "cancel-bots," or similar automated or manual routines that generate excessive amounts of traffic or that disrupt user groups or email use by others; use of data services as a substitute or backup for private lines or full-time or dedicated data connections; peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing services; and software or other devices that maintain continuous active Internet connections when a connection would otherwise be idle or any "keep alive" functions.

Cricket's data services may not be used with high bandwidth applications or, services and content not optimized to work with Cricket's wireless data services that disproportionately and excessively contribute to network congestion. This includes, but is not limited to, redirecting television signals for viewing on computing devices, web broadcasting, and/or the operation of servers, telemetry devices, or supervisory control and data acquisition devices.

In addition to any other actions Cricket may take for violations of this AUP, if in our sole discretion we reasonably believe that you are using Cricket's data services in any manner that is prohibited by this AUP, which Cricket may determine by reviewing your account's data usage, the Devices or devices used on your account, or in any other manner we determine appropriate, then we may without advance notice, and at our option, take any or all of the following actions: (a) reduce your data throughput speeds; (b) restrict, interrupt or terminate any data session; (c) suspend, cancel or terminate your data services; (d) terminate your account; (e) move you to a more appropriate service plan with increased data or high speed data access allowances; and/or (f) decline to renew your wireless service.

VOICE SERVICES

Voice services are primarily provided for live dialog between two individuals. You may not use the voice services for commercial uses (such as telemarketing and marketing research), reselling service, monitoring services (for example baby monitoring and alarm monitoring), uses that maintain open lines of communication for extended periods of time, multi-party calling (separate calls initiated by you but not bridged together), data transmissions, transmission of broadcasts, transmission of recorded material, or other connections which don't consist of uninterrupted live dialog between two individuals.

In addition to any other actions Cricket may take for violations of this AUP, if in our sole discretion we reasonably believe that you are using Cricket's voice services in any manner that is prohibited, then we may without advance notice: (a) terminate individual calls; (b) suspend, cancel or terminate your voice services; (c) terminate your account; and/or (d) decline to renew your wireless service.

MESSAGING SERVICES

You are prohibited from using Cricket's messaging services (including text, picture and video) to send messages that contain advertising or a commercial solicitation to any person or entity without their consent. You must not use our messaging service to send messages that: (a) are bulk messages; (b) are automatically generated; (c) can disrupt our network; (d) harass or threaten another person; (e) interfere with another customer's use or enjoyment of our services; (f) generate significant or serious customer complaints; (g) that falsify or mask the sender/originator of the message; or (h) violate any law or regulation.

In addition to any other actions Cricket may take for violations of this AUP, if in our sole discretion we reasonably believe that you are using Cricket's messaging services in any manner that is prohibited, then we may without advance notice: (a) deny, disconnect, suspend, modify or terminate your messaging service or messaging services with any associated account; and/or (b) deny, disconnect, suspend, modify or terminate the account.

NETWORK AND SERVICES PROTECTIVE MEASURES

We may, at our sole discretion, take any action to protect and maintain the integrity of Cricket's Network and Services, our rights and property, or the rights and interests of others, including, but not limited to (a) modifying, without advance notice, the acceptable and prohibited data uses, and the optimization requirements for your data service; (b) engaging in any reasonable network management practice to enhance customer service, to reduce network congestion, to adapt to advances and changes in technology, and/or to respond to the availability of wireless bandwidth and spectrum; (c) reducing your data throughput speeds at any time or place if your data usage exceeds an applicable usage threshold; (d) using reasonable methods to monitor and collect customer usage information to better optimize the operation of the network; (e) changing the Service Plan you selected to a Service Plan identified by Cricket that has the same or lower rate; (f) interrupting, suspending, canceling or terminating your wireless service without advance notice; and (g) blocking access to certain categories of numbers (e.g., 976, 900, and international destinations) at our sole discretion.

PROHIBITED NETWORK AND SERVICES ACTIVITIES

General Prohibitions

Cricket prohibits use of the Cricket Network and Service in any way that is unlawful, harmful to or interferes with use of Cricket's network or systems, or the network of any other provider, interferes with the use or enjoyment of services received by others, infringes intellectual property rights, results in the publication of threatening or offensive material, or constitutes Spam/Email/Usenet abuse, a security risk or a violation of privacy.

Failure to adhere to the rules, guidelines or agreements applicable to search engines, subscription Web services, chat areas, bulletin boards, Web pages, USENET, applications, or other services that are accessed via a link from the Cricket-branded website or from a website that contains Cricket-branded content is a violation of this AUP.

Unlawful Activities

Cricket Network and Services shall not be used in connection with any criminal, civil or administrative violation of any applicable local, state, provincial, federal, national or international law, treaty, court order, ordinance, regulation or administrative rule.

Violation of Intellectual Property Rights

Cricket Network and Services shall not be used to publish, submit/receive upload/download, post, use, copy or otherwise reproduce, transmit, re-transmit, distribute or store any content/material or to engage in any activity that infringes, misappropriates or otherwise violates the intellectual property rights or privacy or publicity rights of Cricket or any individual, group or entity, including but not limited to any rights protected by any copyright, patent, trademark laws, trade secret, trade dress, right of privacy, right of publicity, moral rights or other intellectual property right now known or later recognized by statute, judicial decision or regulation.

Threatening Material or Content

Cricket Network and Services shall not be used to host, post, transmit, or re-transmit any content or material (or to create a domain name or operate from a domain name), that harasses, or threatens the health or safety of others. In addition, for those Cricket Network and Services that utilize Cricket provided web hosting, Cricket reserves the right to decline to provide such services if the content is determined by Cricket to be obscene, indecent, hateful, malicious, racist, defamatory, fraudulent, libelous, treasonous, excessively violent or promoting the use of violence or otherwise harmful to others.

Inappropriate Interaction with Minors

Cricket complies with all applicable laws pertaining to the protection of minors, including when appropriate, reporting cases of child exploitation to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. For more information about online safety, visit www.ncmec.org.

Child Pornography

Cricket Network and Services shall not be used to publish, submit/receive, upload/download, post, use, copy or otherwise produce, transmit, distribute or store child pornography. Suspected violations of this prohibition may be reported to Cricket at the following email address: cp@abuse-att.net. Cricket will report any discovered violation of this prohibition to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and take steps to remove child pornography (or otherwise block access to the content determined to contain child pornography) from its servers.

Electronic Messaging Abuse

Violation of the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003, or any other applicable law regulating Electronic Messaging constitutes a violation of this AUP. For the purpose of this section "Electronic Message" shall mean any electronic message, including but not limited to email, SMS and MMS.

Electronic Messaging abuse is prohibited using Cricket Network and Services. Examples of Electronic Messaging abuse include but are not limited to the following activities:

  • sending multiple unsolicited Electronic Messages to one or more recipient;
  • sending unsolicited commercial Electronic Messages directed primarily at the advertising or promotion of products or services;
  • sending unsolicited Electronic Messages with petitions for signatures or requests for charitable donations, or sending any chain mail related materials;
  • sending bulk Electronic Messages without identifying, within the message, a reasonable means of opting out from receiving additional messages from the sender;
  • sending Electronic Messages, files or other transmissions that exceed contracted for capacity or that create the potential for disruption of the Cricket network or of the networks with which Cricket interconnects, by virtue of quantity, size or otherwise;
  • using another site's mail server or messaging platform to relay Electronic Messages without the express permission of that site;
  • using another computer (including smartphones and tablets), without authorization, to send multiple Electronic Messages or to retransmit Electronic Messages for the purpose of misleading recipients as to the origin or to conduct any of the activities prohibited by this AUP;
  • using IP addresses that the Customer does not have a right to use;
  • collecting the responses from unsolicited Electronic Messages;
  • maintaining a site that is advertised via unsolicited Electronic Messages, regardless of the origin of the unsolicited Electronic Messages;
  • sending Electronic Messages that are harassing or malicious, or otherwise could reasonably be predicted to interfere with another party's quiet enjoyment of the Cricket Network and Services (e.g., through language, frequency, size or otherwise);
  • using distribution lists containing addresses that include those who have opted out from receiving Electronic Messages;
  • sending Electronic Messages that do not accurately identify the sender, the sender's return address, the email address of origin, or other information contained in the subject line or header;
  • falsifying packet header, sender, or user information whether in whole or in part to mask the identity of the sender, originator or point of origin;
  • using redirect links in unsolicited commercial Electronic Messaging to advertise a website or service;
  • posting a message to more than ten (10) online forums or newsgroups, that could reasonably be expected to generate complaints;
  • intercepting, redirecting or otherwise interfering or attempting to interfere with Electronic Messaging intended for third parties;
  • knowingly deleting any author attributions, legal notices or proprietary designations or labels in a file that the user mails or sends; or
  • using, distributing, advertising, transmitting, or otherwise making available any software program, product, or service that is designed to violate this AUP or the AUP of any other Internet Service Provider, including, but not limited to, the facilitation of the means to spam.

 

NETWORK AND SERVICES SECURITY

Cricket Network and Services may not be used to interfere with, gain unauthorized access to, or otherwise violate the security of Cricket's (or another party's) server, network, network access, personal computer or control devices, software or data, or other system, or to attempt to do any of the foregoing. Examples of system or network security violations include but are not limited to:

  • unauthorized monitoring, scanning or probing of network or system or any other action aimed at the unauthorized interception of data or harvesting of email addresses;
  • hacking, attacking, gaining access to, breaching, circumventing or testing the vulnerability of the user authentication or security of any host, network, server, personal computer, network access and control devices, software or data without express authorization of the owner of the system or network;
  • impersonating others or secretly or deceptively obtaining personal information of third parties (phishing, etc.);
  • using any program, file, script, command or transmission of any message or content of any kind, designed to interfere with a terminal session, the access to or use of the Internet or any other means of communication;
  • distributing or using tools designed to compromise security (including but not limited to SNMP tools), including cracking tools, password guessing programs, packet sniffers or network probing tools (except in the case of authorized legitimate network security operations);
  • knowingly uploading or distributing files that contain viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, worms, time bombs, cancel bots, corrupted files, root kits or any other similar software or programs that may damage the operation of another's computer, network system or other property, or be used to engage in modem or system hi-jacking;
  • engaging in the transmission of pirated software;
  • with respect to dial-up accounts, using any software or device designed to defeat system time-out limits or to allow Customer's account to stay logged on while Customer is not actively using the Cricket Network and Services or using such account for the purpose of operating a server of any type;
  • using manual or automated means to avoid any use limitations placed on the Cricket Network and Services;
  • providing guidance, information or assistance with respect to causing damage or security breach to Cricket's network or systems, or to the network of any other IP Service provider; and
  • failure to take reasonable security precautions to help prevent violation(s) of this AUP.

USER RESPONSIBILITY FOR CONTENT

Cricket Network and Services Users are solely and fully responsible for the content of any material posted, hosted, downloaded/uploaded, created, accessed or transmitted using the Cricket Network and Services. Cricket has no obligation to monitor content of any materials distributed or accessed using Cricket Network and Services. However, Cricket may monitor content of any such materials as necessary to comply with applicable laws, regulations or other governmental or judicial requests; or to protect Cricket Network and Services and its customers. Cricket has no responsibility for any material created on or using Cricket's network or accessible using Cricket Network and Services, including content provided on third-party websites linked to the Cricket network. Such third-party website links are provided as Internet navigation tools for informational purposes only, and do not constitute in any way an endorsement by Cricket of the content of such sites.

SUSPENSION AND/OR TERMINATION OF WIRELESS SERVICE

Cricket may without advance notice, suspend or terminate the wireless service of any User which Cricket in its sole discretion and judgment reasonably believes to have violated any part of this AUP. Cricket will suspend service for violation of this AUP as Cricket determines is reasonably practical under the circumstances to address the underlying violation. Cricket may without advance notice, take such further action in addition to those specifically set forth in this AUP, as Cricket determines to be appropriate under the circumstances to eliminate or preclude repeat violations, and Cricket shall not be liable for any damages of any nature suffered by any User or third party resulting in whole or in part from Cricket's exercise of its rights under this AUP.

Acceptable Use Policy | Cricket Wireless