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LAS VEGAS--AT&T Mobility's (NYSE: T) Cricket Wireless prepaid brand plans to shut down its Muve Music service on Feb. 7, and starting Jan. 31 will replace it with the Deezer music service, which will be available to Cricket subscribers for $6 per month, taxes and fees included.
Separately, the carrier announced it will start shutting down its legacy CDMA network March 15, and will complete the process by Sept. 15.
Jennifer Van Buskirk, president of Cricket, said that Muve had "run its course." The music downloading service was originally introduced by regional prepaid operator Leap Wireless in 2011, and was available to customers who were on the carrier's more expensive rate plans. AT&T acquired Leap last year, and since then the fate of Muve has been up in the air.
It's unclear how many Muve customers Cricket currently has. The company declined to provide subscriber numbers. Prior to AT&T's acquisition of Leap, the company said last year in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that Muve Music was available to more than 2.3 million Cricket customers as of the end of 2013, "and is currently among the largest on-demand music subscription services in the U.S. as measured by the number...