Cricket and C Spire to Offer iPhone 5 Beginning September 28 [Updated]

Thursday September 13, 2012 7:49 am PDT by Eric Slivka
While the three major U.S. iPhone carriers AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint will be launching the iPhone 5 on Friday, September 21, it will not take long for availability to extend to other carriers. Cricket Communications and C Spire Wireless have both announced that they will begin offering the iPhone 5 one week later on Friday, September 28.


Both of the carriers were pioneers in the U.S. iPhone market, with C Spire being the first regional carrier to begin offering the iPhone last November while Cricket was the first U.S. prepaid carrier to launch the iPhone this past June. The iPhone is now available on 16 different U.S. carriers, but it is unclear when the iPhone 5 will come to the remaining carriers.


Neither Cricket nor C Spire has offered any launch details beyond the September 28 availability date.

Update 8:06 AM: Several of the other regional carriers have also confirmed that they will launch the iPhone 5 on September 28:

- Appalachian Wireless
- Bluegrass Cellular
- Cellcom
- GCI
- Golden State Cellular
- Nex-Tech Wireless
- nTelos
- Pioneer Wireless

[ 143 comments ]

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1080p
97 months ago
Using an iPhone 5 on Cricket would be like driving a Lamborghini on a bumpy dirt road.
Rating: 5 Votes
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partyBoy
97 months ago

Using an iPhone 5 on Cricket would be like driving a Lamborghini on a bumpy dirt road.


Nope, thats a myth, alot of people think that but its NOT true, have you ever had a "pay by the month" phone service?
Rating: 4 Votes
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tinkafoo
97 months ago
It's all but confirmed: Apple utterly hates T-Mobile for some reason.
Rating: 4 Votes
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toshmac
97 months ago
didn't expect this
Rating: 4 Votes
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HobeSoundDarryl
97 months ago

Using an iPhone 5 on Cricket would be like driving a Lamborghini on a bumpy dirt road.


Yes, but even a cheap brand of car would still get a driver to the exact same destinations... and probably leave some extra money in their pockets to spend on fun when they arrive.
Rating: 3 Votes
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kiljoy616
97 months ago

Using an iPhone 5 on Cricket would be like driving a Lamborghini on a bumpy dirt road.


Sound like fun, who does not want to run thru dirt road in a 200 k plus car. :D
Rating: 3 Votes
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HobeSoundDarryl
97 months ago
I expect Virgin Mobile to have it soon too. Cspire is odd in offering a fairly low cost for the phone and a pay-as-you-go for the service. Virgin probably won't do that (pay up for the phone, pay-as-you-go for the service). However, Cspire is regional while Virgin is basically Sprint by another name (in terms of "in" network reach).
Rating: 2 Votes
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rnizlek
97 months ago

http://www.theverge.com/2012/9/12/3321894/apple-iphone-5-separate-gsm-cdma-versions


No, there are separate GSM and CDMA versions, but the CDMA version has GSM/WCDMA capability for use abroad. The reason for the separate versions is frequency differences. The CDMA model is actually more compatible with European LTE networks than the North American GSM model is.
Rating: 2 Votes
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rnizlek
97 months ago

The iPhone 5 is not a world phone like the 4S is. There will not be a GSM side on the CDMA iPhone 5.


That is absolutely false. See here:

http://www.apple.com/iphone/specs.html

Quoted from the page:

CDMA model A1429*: CDMA EV-DO Rev. A and Rev. B (800, 1900, 2100 MHz); UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz); GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz); LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5, 13, 25)
Rating: 2 Votes
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Tiger8
97 months ago

FYI: Sprint is feeling the pain of that bet (already).


Really? Source? I'm with Sprint and I know that they are seeing an increase in both new customers and upgrading customers, and they are on target to fulfill their commitment (in fact, they might fulfill it much sooner than anticipated).
Rating: 2 Votes

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