Cricket sets iPhone 5 date; AT&T, Sprint, Verizon plans
updated 09:40 am EDT, Thu September 13, 2012
Cricket becomes first US prepaid carrier to announce iPhone 5
Cricket has announced that it will start selling the iPhone 5 on September 28th. That makes it the first US prepaid carrier to say it will get the phone, although it will get the hardware a full week after national post-paid iPhone carriers AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon. Cricket hasn't provided any other information, but will likely use the same pricing scheme it did for the iPhone 4S, charging $500 for a 16GB phone plus a $55 monthly fee for unlimited service. There is no word yet on when other US prepaids, namely Virgin Mobile, will get the 5.
AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon, meanwhile, have revealed some more details of how they will handle the iPhone 5. AT&T customers for instance will be able to keep any unlimited data plans even with upgrade pricing, but on Verizon people will have to pay full price for an iPhone, which is $649 in the case of a 16GB model. Verizon customers can also choose to keep older Nationwide Usage Based plans instead of switching to a Share Everything plan.
Sprint has said that it will start taking preorders at 12:01AM Pacific time on September 14th, timing other US carriers are likely to follow.
