How to Manually Program a Cricket Phone

Cricket Communications Inc. is a company that offers cellular service to customers across the United States. Cricket-branded phones work with Cricket service. If you want to transfer your service to a new phone, you can do so, but you need to take your new phone into your local Cricket office to have it programmed, or, you need to manually program your new phone using the instructions provided below.

Make sure your Cricket phone is fully charged. If it is a brand new phone, charge the phone overnight before attempting to manually program it. If your phone is new, or you don’t know remember your phone number, call Cricket at 1-800-274-2538 and ask for your Cricket MDN (mobile directory number), which is your phone number, your 10-digit Cricket MIN (mobile identification number) and your one- to five-digit Cricket CDMA System ID number. Write the numbers down because you will need them to program your phone.

Turn your phone on by pressing the red “Power” or “End” button on your phone’s keypad.

Press the “*” (star) button, followed by the number 2-2-8, and press the “Send” key on your phone’s keypad.

Listen to the voice prompts until the automated person on the other end of the line says that activation is complete. Your phone should automatically shut down and restart itself.

If the automated programming fails to work, turn your phone off and back on. Press the “#” button twice on your keypad, followed by the numbers 6-2-6, followed by an asterisk, or “*”.

Your phone will prompt you to enter a subsidy code. Press the "3" button six times, followed by the “OK” button.

Select the “MIN” option from your screen by using your phone pad’s up and down arrow keys to highlight “MIN” on screen, and then pressing “OK.”

Enter your 10-digit Cricket MIN and press “OK.”

Press the down arrow once and select the “IMSI” option. Read the number that appears to confirm that it reads “IMSI_11_12=00.”

Press the down arrow twice to select the “CDMA System ID” option and press “OK.” Use your phone keypad to enter your one- to five-digit CDMA System ID number, and press “OK.”

Press the red “Power” or “End” button to exit programming mode. Your phone should automatically reset. If these steps do not work, contact Cricket by calling 1-800-274-2538 for assistance, because you may need a new phone.