Hey everyone! I’ve been with Cricket for about two years now after switching over from Verizon. I travel a lot and sometimes use a global eSIM or another carrier when I’m in areas where Cricket doesn’t have great coverage.

When I first signed up, Cricket wouldn’t provide a physical SIM for my iPhone 12 Pro Max, so I had to use an eSIM. But for travel, I’d really like to have my Cricket service on a physical SIM, so I can use the eSIM slot for data while keeping iMessage active on my main line. I used to do this with Verizon and it worked great, basically like having WiFi calling over the secondary connection.

Is this setup possible now in 2025? Can Cricket issue me a physical SIM for my iPhone 12 Pro Max?

Thanks!

I've been a Cricket Wireless subscriber for 3+ years with 5 lines on the Unlimited Cricket More Plan. For the most part, I've been a satisfied customer and have enjoyed the service and coverage (on AT&T's network) at a fantastic price. About 2 years ago, I started looking into Visible as a potential alternative at a slightly lower price on Verizon's network. When I learned that Visible introduced eSIM capability last month, I had to give it a try. 4 major reasons that prompted me to activate a 2nd line on Visible: 1. Unlimited plan on Verizon's network at $25/mo. 2. eSIM capability. 3. Additional Hotspot for Work From Home and remote work when needed. 4. I needed to activate a second line for Business use on my iPhone 12 Pro Max.

Overall, I'd pick Cricket Wireless over Visible for my usage and needs if I had to go with one vs the other. For the most part Cricket seems to have much better LTE/5G performance & coverage in the SoCal regions I travel the most going from the San Fernando Valley to Coachella Valley (Pam Springs area). Of course there are instances when Visible performs better or areas where both are almost equal. In general, even with full bars Visible seems to deprioritize the data and I get much lower than expected download/upload speeds. Cricket consistently has lower latency and much higher download/upload speeds especially when I have full bars. I've even had great performance with Cricket when I went to Mexico for a family vacation. Being able to use my phone without any limitations in another country is a big plus. One major Criticism I have for Cricket is the fact that they don't have eSIM support or any public announcements to my knowledge of future availability. I wish Cricket would make eSIM support a top priority for their next feature on their development roadmap.

This past week Apple released a public beta for iOS 14.5 which enabled 5G when using dual SIM on the latest iPhone lineup. Also, a couple days ago, Visible made a few announcements making their service even more attractive for me (you can find these on the Visible sub). Because of these latest announcements, I am planning on keeping Visible as my second line for Business use. I just hope that Verizon continues to develop their 5G network, because they're far behind their competition.

I hope that this post helps anyone interested in using both Cricket & Visible on the same phone or even AT&T and Verizon on the same phone. Using the Speedtest app on my iPhone 12 for reference, in my neighborhood I get 27ms ping, 138Mbps down, 22Mbps up on Cricket and 96ms ping, 36Mbps down, 13Mbps up on Visible.

I bought a Cricket iPhone 12. I know i need to be with Cricket Wireless for 6 months for the iPhone 12 to be unlocked. If I use the sim card on another device for six months, does the iPhone 12 qualify for unlock?

I just did a software update to my phone for the first time since the last big IOS update in the fall. When the update was complete and my phone turned back on, a message saying “Your SIM sent you a text message” or something like that popped up. I’ve never seen that before and I’m just curious, has anyone else had this happen? If so, what is going on? Why did it that happen?