Cricket number port to ATT and moto vs. samsung phones

[JimS]

A couple years ago we switched to Cricket and got one of their cheaper phones (moto G power 2021) cause we don't do anything very complex on our phones although my wife was running out of space on her old one.  Before that we had ATT on Samsungs and the phone worked well.  One of the reasons to switch was free Mexico and Canada operation although that use is VERY infrequent. 
 
The phones occasionally stop working claiming they don't have network access - the display still functions but can't send or receive calls or data.  Shutting down and restarting seems to be the only way to fix them and they come back on with good signal strength.  If there is some way to fix that I'd love to hear about it but we are thinking we will just go back to Samsung phones as they seemed to not have such issues.
 
Talked to an ATT guy at Sams club who told my wife she would get a porting credit of $20 a month which made the monthly fee almost the same.  When I went with her to a different Sams the guy there said it didn't count as a port from another carrier since Cricket is now owned by ATT.  Kind of makes sense.  We are looking at options.  If anyone can shed some light on such issues (Moto issues and porting) that would be great.   
 
I recall when we went to Cricket they said we couldn't use our old Samsung phones with Cricket.  Something in there system wouldn't allow it.  Don't think cricket was part of ATT at the time but it was an unlocked phone I got at Best Buy not one I got specifically for ATT.  Made no sense and I did put the sim into the Samsung temporarily at one point and it worked.  Just shows that there are lots of rules that don't necessarily have a technical basis I guess...

 

[sic0048]

This might be of interest to you:  https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-cheap-cell-phone-plans,review-4504.html  The downside is that many of those inexpensive plans are "pre-paid" plans.  
 
Some other good options are Google FI and Spectrum Mobile (if you have Spectrum internet service).  These are post paid programs that come very close (or even match) the cheap pre-paid plans.  Our family recently switched to Spectrum Mobile and have been very happy so far.  

I think you will find that many old phones are not supported on these newer, cheaper plans. Most 3g networks have been totally discontinued (and the frequency spectrum reallocated for other uses) and 5g is the norm. These providers want to push people to 5g because of the extra capacity and future proofing it provides.