Leap Announces Launch of Cricket(R) Service in Austin, Temple and Killeen, Texas; Central Texas Market Cluster to Provide Unlimited Mobile Phone Services in Austin, Temple, Killeen and San Antonio.

SAN DIEGO & ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ:LEAP), a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless communications services, and Alaska Native Broadband 1 License, LLC ("ANB"), today announced that ANB will begin offering Cricket service in Austin, Texas and Leap will offer Cricket service in Temple and Killeen, Texas tomorrow. Leap and ANB networks will now serve approximately 1.5 million new potential customers or "covered POPs" in the three-city region, bringing the total covered POPs served by Leap and ANB networks in the Central Texas region to approximately 3.1 million. Cricket customers in the region will have, as part of their regular service plan, a calling area spanning approximately 3,200 square miles that includes the key cities of Central Texas including the Greater San Antonio area. This latest expansion brings Cricket branded covered POPs nationwide to approximately 40 million (2006 estimate).

"This is a unique benefit for new and existing customers and we, together with our joint venture ANB, look forward to providing Cricket's low cost, high value services to Central Texans seeking a value-based alternative to traditional wireless services," said Doug Hutcheson, president and chief executive officer at Leap. "We're eager to bring our full range of services to area customers."

Kicking off tomorrow's launch, four Cricket retail stores and approximately 50 indirect retailers, including more than 16 premier dealers, will open in the Austin and Temple/Killeen market areas.

In February 2005, ANB was the winning bidder on nine licenses in Auction #58. The licenses, covering a total of approximately 10.1 million POPs, include: Cincinnati, Ohio; Lexington and Louisville, Ky.; Colorado Springs, Colo.; Austin, San Antonio, El Paso and Bryan, Texas; and Las Cruces, New Mexico. Alaska Native Broadband 1 License, LLC is a subsidiary of a joint venture between Cricket Communications, Inc. and Alaska Native Broadband, LLC.

About Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (Manager of Alaska Native Broadband, LLC)

Cricket service is offered in Austin by Alaska Native Broadband 1 License, LLC ("ANB"), a subsidiary of Alaska Native Broadband, LLC. The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) is the managing member of Alaska Native Broadband, LLC. ASRC is an Alaska Native Corporation representing the business interests of the Inupiat Eskimos of the North Slope of Alaska. Organized pursuant to the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, ASRC has over 9,000 shareholders -- the majority of which live in the eight villages on Alaska's North Slope. The company manages a portfolio of businesses in the energy services, government services, petroleum refining, construction and telecommunication industries. ASRC is headquartered in Barrow, Alaska with offices in Anchorage. For more information, please visit www.asrc.com.

About Leap

Leap, headquartered in San Diego, Calif., is a customer-focused company providing innovative mobile wireless services targeted to meet the needs of customers under-served by traditional communications companies. With the value of unlimited wireless services as the foundation of its business, Leap pioneered both Cricket(R) and Jump(TM) Mobile service. Through its affordable, flat-rate service plans, Cricket offers customers a choice of unlimited local voice minutes, unlimited domestic long distance voice minutes, unlimited text, instant and picture messaging and additional value-added services over a high-quality, all-digital CDMA network. Designed for the mobile-dependent, urban youth market, Jump Mobile is a unique prepaid wireless service that offers customers free unlimited incoming calls from anywhere with outgoing calls at an affordable 10 cents per minute and free incoming and outgoing text messaging. Both Cricket and Jump Mobile services are offered without long-term commitments or credit checks. For more information, please visit www.leapwireless.com.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this report contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements reflect management's current forecast of certain aspects of Leap's future. You can identify most forward-looking statements by forward-looking words such as "believe," "think," "may," "could," "will," "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "seek," "plan," "expect," "should," "would" and similar expressions in this report. Such statements are based on currently available operating, financial and competitive information and are subject to various risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated or implied in our forward-looking statements. Such risks, uncertainties and assumptions include, among other things:

--our ability to attract and retain customers in an extremely competitive marketplace;

--changes in economic conditions that could adversely affect the market for wireless services;

--the impact of competitors' initiatives;

--our ability to successfully implement product offerings and execute market expansion plans;

--our ability to comply with the covenants in our senior secured credit facilities and any future credit agreement, indenture or similar instrument;

--our ability to attract, motivate and retain an experienced workforce;

--failure of our network 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.

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Leap is a U.S. registered trademark and the Leap logo is a trademark of Leap. Cricket is a U.S. registered trademark of Cricket. In addition, the following are trademarks of Cricket: Unlimited Access, Unlimited Plus, Unlimited Classic, Jump, Travel Time, Cricket Clicks and the Cricket "K." All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.