Cricket Drives More Value into Service Plans for Our Customers

Cricket Announces New Features at Value Prices

Cricket Drives More Value into Service Plans for Our Customers

• On Monday August 3, 2009, 4:05 pm EDT

SAN DIEGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cricket Communications, Inc., a leading provider of unlimited wireless services and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAP [1] - News [2]), today announced enhanced service plans, new features and additional coverage that increase the value Cricket brings to customers. The new plans take effect tomorrow, August 4, 2009, in select Cricket markets that cover approximately 72.3 million potential customers.

Cricket's popular $40 monthly plan, which already includes unlimited voice, long distance, domestic and international text and picture messaging, and nationwide coverage, will expand in these markets to include unlimited Web, unlimited 411 and unlimited service to more than 4,600 cities and towns across the US. In addition, Cricket's $45 monthly plan in these markets will now include the additional features of unlimited email, unlimited data backup and 30 roaming minutes per month. The $55 plan mirrors the $45 plan but also contains 200 roaming minutes per month.

"The $40 and $45 plans are at the heart of our value proposition, providing a rich, national coverage set of offerings," said Al Moschner, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Cricket. "The new features we have included in our service plans significantly increase the value we deliver to our customers and are consistent with Cricket's history of value leadership. We believe Cricket has a broad array of superior products and services that are unmatched in the prepaid, no contract and unlimited market space. Our industry-leading cost structure affords us significant pricing flexibility which we believe provides us a competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment. We are also strengthening our relationships with our dealers through enhanced compensation which we expect will further add to our competitive advantage. We will continue to seek ways to attract more customers including expanding into new national retail channels and enhancing existing sales channels where customers can select from a full array of Cricket unlimited voice, Cricket Broadband and Cricket PAYGo products."

Cricket also announced the addition of two new, large clusters to the Company's calling areas, expanding the unlimited reach of Cricket customers with Premium Extended Coverage to additional broad geographic areas. The new Mid-Atlantic cluster stretches from New York City to Richmond, Virginia. The new Southwest area covers parts of Arizona, Southern California, Nevada, Utah and Colorado. The Company will continue to leverage its 3G network advantage by broadening its line-up of feature-rich 3G handsets and applications.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer of simple and affordable unlimited wireless services with no long-term commitments or credit checks required serving more than four million customers in 34 states. Cricket offers wireless voice and broadband Internet services over the latest technology, high-quality, all-digital 3G CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO wireless network. Cricket's wireless voice service plans include unlimited anytime minutes, unlimited U.S. long distance, unlimited text and picture messaging, unlimited text to Mexico, unlimited Mobile Web, unlimited directory assistance, as well as a variety of calling features and feature-rich mobile applications such as popular games, ringtones and wallpapers. Cricket Broadband provides unlimited Internet access anywhere within Cricket's coverage areas at speeds comparable to DSL. For more information on Cricket, visit www.mycricket.com [3]. Cricket is offered by Leap Wireless International, Inc., headquartered in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Leap, visit www.leapwireless.com [4].

Leap is a U.S. registered trademark and the Leap logo is a trademark of Leap. Cricket, Jump, the Cricket "K" and Flex Bucket are U.S. registered trademarks of Cricket. In addition, the following are trademarks or service marks of Cricket: Cricket By Week, Cricket Choice, Cricket Connect, Cricket Nation and Cricket PAYGo. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements reflect management's current expectations based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information, but are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in or implied by the forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements are generally identified with words such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "plan," "could," "may" and similar expressions. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could affect our forward-looking statements include, among other things:

• our ability to attract and retain customers in an extremely competitive marketplace;
• changes in economic conditions, including interest rates, consumer credit conditions, unemployment and other macro-economic factors that could adversely affect demand for the services we provide;
• the impact of competitors' initiatives;
• our ability to successfully implement product offerings and execute effectively on our planned coverage expansion, launches of markets we acquired in the FCC's auction for Advanced Wireless Services, or Auction #66, expansion of our mobile broadband product offering and other strategic activities;
• our ability to obtain roaming services from other carriers at cost-effective rates;
• our ability to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting;
• delays in our market expansion plans, including delays resulting from any difficulties in funding such expansion through our existing cash, cash generated from operations, or additional capital, or delays by existing U.S. government and other private sector wireless operations in clearing the AWS spectrum, some of which users are permitted to continue using the spectrum for several years;
• our ability to attract, motivate and retain an experienced workforce;
• our ability to comply with the covenants in our indentures and any future credit agreement, indenture or similar instrument;
• failure of our network or information technology systems to perform according to expectations; and
• other factors detailed in the section entitled "Risk Factors" included in our periodic reports filed with the SEC, including our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2009.

All forward-looking statements included in this news release should be considered in the context of these risks. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Investors and prospective investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on our forward-looking statements.

Contact:

Cricket Communications, Inc.
Greg Lund, Media Relations
858-882-9105
glund@cricketcommunications.com [5]
or
Amy Wakeham, Investor Relations
858-882-6084
awakeham@leapwireless.com [6]