Customers’ shopping habits are shifting toward online, and this trend has accelerated during the pandemic. “These changes will help us deliver services to customers in a way they prefer,” according to spokesman Jim Kimberly.

Wave7 Research last week first reported that Cricket was planning to close “hundreds of doors,” citing a source familiar with the matter. AT&T acquired the Cricket brand from Leap Wireless in 2014.  Cricket is not the only brand experiencing permanent store closures. In late April, multiple sources reported that T-Mobile was closing more Metro by T-Mobile prepaid stores. T-Mobile did not provide a number of stores set for closure but said it was “optimizing” its retail footprint “as a normal course of business,” acknowledging that it notified some dealer stores that it was transitioning them to T-Mobile stores and closing a “small number” of redundant locations.

Speed is key with Wi-Fi, and the category has certainly been moving fast as of late. First came Wi-Fi 6, a brand-new, faster version of Wi-Fi that started hitting the market in 2019. Now, after a unanimous vote in April, the Federal Communications Commission is opening up an entire new band of spectrum to accommodate next-gen devices designed to tap into it.

The Wi-Fi Alliance, an industry group that manages Wi-Fi nomenclature, branded this new spectrum and the devices that can take advantage of it under a new name: Wi-Fi 6E. The first such devices are expected to begin hitting stores by the end of this year. One industry-funded report claims that, along with providing faster speeds and new room for growing internet traffic, the move will generate more than $180 billion in US revenue over the next five years.