Shockingly, I was unable to find a thread that discussed this.
I have had BB's in Canada for a few years now, most recently a 9700 on Bell. Two months ago, I got a Cricket 8530 for when I travel to the US.
When I purchased the 8530, I was told that it was 3G. It also says on their website that the 8530 is 3G (mycricket.com/cell-phones).
Since I have had the device, it has always been in 1XEV, and has never once gone into 3G. I have traveled with the phone to New York, Atlanta, Chicago, and Austin, and the phone has never been in 3G.
The browsing speed is awful. When on phone calls, the phone cannot receive e-mails or BBMs. When the call is ended, all e-mails and BBMs flood in. The only time that the speed of browsing is good and that e-mails and BBMs come into the BB while on a phone call is when the BB is connected to wifi.
Tech support on the phone told me to go to a Cricket store. I went to an authorized Cricket dealer, but his knowledge of BB was laughable at best. He was saying that the only way to know if you are on 3G is if Youtube works, and since Youtube worked on my phone, even though it was choppy, that my phone had 3G! Still, he phoned Cricket smartphone support, and they advised that there seemed to be a problem with my BB and that I should exchange it at a Cricket store.
Here is the kicker. I went to a Cricket store, and 2 representatives showed me their 8530's. They were both in 1XEV, just like my device. They said that "1XEV is Blackberry's version of 3G". When I protested, they said that this is what their manager told them, so that is what they tell clients. Unfortunately, the manager was not working at that time. They ran some tests on my device, then escalated it to a technician that will allegedly come test the reception in my area, even though I told them that I was having the same problem across the country. I was told that this tech would then phone me, which of course never happened and likely never will.
My fiancee has a Cricket Huawei Ascend Android phone which is running on 3G just fine. The folks at the Cricket store used this to show me that Cricket does indeed have 3G, but the 8530's run on the special Blackberry version of 3G called 1XEV!
Having seen two other 8530's with the same issue as mine makes me think that exchanging my device will solve nothing, and that it is a network-wide issue. However, everyone that I have spoken with at Cricket about this says that I am the first to complain about this. Also, I have found nothing online about this.
All this being said:
Does anyone else have a BB on Cricket?
What would you do in my position, having paid for a device and for service and being told that it was 3G when in fact this is not true?
Am I on crazy pills?
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Cricket BB 8530 is NOT 3G!!! 
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