2008 Performance (continued)
New Market Launches and Increased Coverage
We also experienced impressive customer uptake in our newest markets. Last year we launched approximately 11 million new covered potential customers (POPs), growing our footprint by 20 percent. Our seasoned launch team brought unlimited Cricket service to Savannah, GA; St. Louis, MO; Las Vegas, NV; Oklahoma City, OK; Rio Grande Valley, Laredo and Corpus Christi, TX; and Madison and Milwaukee, WI. At the end of 2008, our covered POPs totaled approximately 67.2 million, and with the launches of Chicago and Philadelphia in the first quarter of 2009, we are well on the way to achieving our goal of covering up to approximately 25 million additional POPs by mid-2009.
In addition to introducing new products and services and enhancing our own network, we also significantly increased our network access through the debut of Premium Extended Coverage, a strategic roaming program which gives us one of the largest unlimited roaming coverage areas of any low-cost, unlimited carrier. This major milestone was made possible through strategic roaming partnerships with 14 different carriers. In November 2008, we began including this service in our highest-value Cricket Wireless service plans at no extra charge, and offered it with our other service plans for an additional $5 a month. The service gives our customers unlimited voice usage in a broad service area, which totaled more than 122 million POPs at year end.