Cricket Offers Contract-Free iPhone
Been craving an iPhone, but resisted signing a long term contract? Regional carrier Cricket, owned by Leap Wireless, is coming to your rescue with the first prepaid iPhone.
Cricket Offers Contract-Free iPhone
Jonathan Takiff
Been craving an iPhone, but resisted signing a long term contract? Regional carrier Cricket, owned by Leap Wireless, is coming to your rescue with the first pre-paid iPhone.
On sale June 22, the phone will cost customers a lot more upfront - $500 for a 16 GB iPhone 4S or $400 for the older iPhone 4, versus $200 or $100 in a subsidized iPhone purchase from Verizon, Sprint and AT&T when you're committing to a two year service contract at $70-$80 a month.
But over time, taking Cricket's contract-free service at $55 a month with unlimited talk and text, the savings of a pre-paid iPhone add up.
Assuming you never shut off the service, never skip months, a Cricket iPhone would cost $1,719 to own and use for two years, versus $2,775 for a typical iPhone customer on a contract, estimates Cricket. Another plus - Cricket offers "unlimited data" in its package. though narrows the pipe for slower streaming after you pull down 2.3GB in a billing cycle.
The biggest user concession in going with Cricket is a geographically constrained and less powerful CDMA network. Leap/Cricket is within earshot of 60 million Americans versus 275 million on other carriers.
Pre-sales for the Cricket iPhones (available in white or black) begin on-line June 15th at mycricket.com/iphone or 800-853-7682.
You'll be hearing a lot of "it's about time" from pundits about this move, and probably seeing another bump up of Apple's stock price.. Pre-paid, no-contract phones have become a huge part of the mobile business which Apple has ceded to Google's Android platform until now.
not a bad idea if you don't need cellular service outside an urban area— barry m goldwater
The iPhone is coming to women, children, minorities, and gays, who have been the hardest hit thanks to the Bush/Romney/Ryan economic policies of the past decade. It is about time these disaffected peoples are allowed to enjoy the iPhone like the rest of white America.— eldiablodelsol2009- Wow, those are some nasty Cricket stereotypes. I'm a white middle class professional, and I have had Cricket for about a year and a half now because you can't beat the $55 per month unlimited plan. My cricket phone works down the shore, in DC, and NYC, and when I travelled out to the sticks, I bought some roaming minutes, and in worked in the Pocanos and central Pa. If I didn't have Cricket, I'd have Virgin mobile which runs on the Sprint network and has a similar cost structure to Cricket. Pre-paid is the way to go to save a lot of money.— Bobby257
