The Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Cricket Wireless launched its service in Steamboat Springs last month, and the response has been good, Jay Mogil said.

Mogil, who owns Mogil’s on the Mountain in Dream Island Plaza, is the local Cricket phone seller. Many Latino customers have responded positively to the product, he said. The most popular plan, which is $45 a month, includes unlimited text messages to Mexico.

The phone is convenient and requires minimal paperwork, Mogil said.

Customers don’t have to sign on for a long-term contract, fill out an application or go through a credit check, Mogil said. Users are notified through the phone when they owe money, and they can make their payments at Mogil’s shop.

“The first month is free, they can use it as long as they want, and if you stop paying, it shuts off and doesn’t affect your credit,” he said.

Latinos are an important part of Cricket’s overall customer base, marketing manager Laura Stitt said.

“We offer very low rates to Mexico on direct calling,” she said. “It can be as low as a nickel a minute.”

Cricket phones get service from about Riverside Plaza to Lake Catamount, Mogil said. In the rest of Routt County, service is spotty to nonexistent. To counter that, Mogil said, customers can put money into a “bucket” program. That allows them to pre-pay roaming charges. The feature is handy in an emergency; for example, a motorist who gets a flat tire near Oak Creek can go into roaming mode to call for help.

Cricket would like to expand service, area general manager Chris Samuelson said, but it is focusing on expanding its subscriber base in Steamboat first.

“There’s lots of different groups of folks that have been very receptive,” Samuelson said. “Things are going very well, and we’re excited as things get geared up for ski season.”

Mogil said he thinks the phone could be popular with temporary workers who arrive for the season.

“I’m interested in seeing how it works in the winter with folks from Australia and New Zealand who don’t want to commit” to a contract, he said. “For anyone who’s here as a seasonal worker, it’s the perfect solution.”

Mogil said he used to be the local dealer for Sprint cell phones but stopped providing that service. Seasonal workers would sign up for a two-year contract because they had no other option, he said.

“They knew they were just going to drop it after a couple of months, and they’d just get a bad mark on their credit,” Mogil said.

In a 15-minute period Thursday afternoon, one young Spanish-speaking wom­an came in to discuss issues with her service. Mogil took her phone and said he would take care of the problem. A Spanish-speaking man came in soon after to find out more about the phones. He said he planned to return to buy one the next day.