A wireless-phone newcomer to the Wasatch believes options are sometimes a bad thing.

That is why Cricket Communications' rate plan offers customers only two choices: Take it, or leave it.

And you don't have to worry about roaming because the phone only works on the stretch between North Ogden and Spanish Fork. Their best phone model is nothing more than a paperweight by the time you reach Park City.

If the offering sounds limited, it is because Cricket, the company says, is after a market that its competitors (five in Utah) have priced out of the market or chased away. That market is the people who don't enjoy the quest for the best rate plan, customers who don't roam and people who can live with fewer variables in exchange for a predictable bill amount each month: $34.95, paid in advance.

Every call throughout the coverage area is local, and the service offers unlimited call time.

If customers really want options, Cricket offers voice mail, caller ID and call waiting for $3.95 per month for any one of the features and $2 per month for each additional feature. There is also a pre-paid long-distance plan, but at 15 cents per minute, Cricket almost appears to be encouraging customers to shop for a lower-priced calling card that can be reached from a toll-free number, which Cricket phones will dial without charge.

Even the company's name was chosen based on market research that showed customers think technical-sounding names imply complexity, said Rick Barlow, Cricket's general manager in Utah.

Barlow said the number of wireless phone users (80 million) is expected to double by 2004. "The growth will be in the mass-consumer market," which isn't the most profitable sector for most wireless companies. Cricket plans to thrive in that market because its business model weeds out bad customers and cuts the need for a labor-intensive support infrastructure.

Cricket has no customers with unpaid bills because each month is paid in advance. Everybody pays the same monthly fee, so there are no extra advertising costs for specials or promotions. Unlimited talk time and the scant list of add-ons dramatically cuts calls to customer service representatives to switch options or check the status of a bill. Barlow said those calls cost a wireless company $8 to $15 apiece.

Spokeswoman Carrie Dunn Cricket's exclusively local service makes the wireless phone less like a cell phone and more like "the ultimate cordless phone."

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Cricket, a subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc., is now in 35 markets around the nation, beginning with a March 1999 launch in Chattanooga, Tenn. The company does plan to increase the size of the Wasatch Front service area to take in population centers just off the Wasatch Front, like Park City, but Cricket has no plans to link its different markets together.

Cricket is advertising along the Wasatch Front and will begin pre-selling its service Monday with the service going live in mid-December.

Cricket plans to open company-owned sales outlets in West Valley City, Sandy, Layton and Provo, and it will also sell its service through national retailers such as Staples, Office Depot and CompUSA, as well as local and regional businesses and Internet-based stores.


E-MAIL: steve@desnews.com

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