You have to love it when prepaid provider give you more services for the same amount of money, which is what Cricket Wireless (owned by San Diego company Leap Wireless) has done.

In order to compete (well, they don’t quite admit that this is why they are adding more to their plans, but it seems quite obvious) with other prepaid wireless providers who have very attractive unlimited prepaid plans, Cricket Wireless plans will now come with more services for the same prices. 

Here’s how the plans break down:

$40 Cricket Wireless Plan:  This plan, which already gives subscribers unlimited talk time, text messaging, and long distance, now has the added features of unlimited directory assistance and unlimited Web access.  Not bad at all.

$45 Cricket Wireless Plan: This plan comes with everything the cheaper cell phone plan offers, but in addition, subscribers receive 20 minutes of roaming talk time, data backup features, and unlimited email.  Unlimited email is a definite plus because you can communicate without using talk time–not that it matters with this plan unless you’re roaming.

$55 Cricket Wireless Plan: Subscribers to this more expensive prepaid phone plan get 200 minutes of roaming every month.  If you travel for business a few days a month, this plan may be worth looking at.

Who is the Competition?

Boost Mobile has a $50 Unlimited Monthly plan that has attracted close to three quarters of a million users since the plan was unveiled in January of this year.

Tracfone Straight Talk will do some serious damage when its $45 Unlimited Prepaid plan that runs on Verizon’s network is put in wide release.

MetroPCS cut the prices of its Unlimited plans across the board by $5, with its lowest-priced plan coming in at an affordable $40.  

It is likely that Cricket Wireless will earn more business by offering more services with its plans, but it faces stiff competition from other prepaid companies vying for more business.

Read more about Cricket prepaid.