Virgin Mobile USA to Launch iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on October 1

Earlier this week, we noted that a number of regional carriers in the United States and Canada had begun announcing plans to begin selling the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c on October 1, representing a coordinated expansion of availability for the device even as iPhone 5s supplies remain extremely tight.

One notable exception to the list of carriers launching the new iPhones on that date was Virgin Mobile, but in a pair of Tweets issued today the company has announced that it too will be part of that October 1 rollout.

virgin_mobile.iphone_5s
Virgin Mobile, a prepaid brand from Sprint, first began carrying the iPhone in June 2012 with the iPhone 4s and iPhone 4. The carrier did not begin selling the iPhone 5 until June of this year, some nine months after the handset debuted on the major U.S. carriers.

Related Forum: iPhone

Popular Stories

streaming black friday 2025

Black Friday Streaming Deals Include Big Savings on Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and More

Monday November 24, 2025 8:03 am PST by
We've been focusing on deals on physical products over the past few weeks, but Black Friday is also a great time of year to purchase a streaming membership. Some of the biggest services have great discounts for new and select returning members this week, including Disney+, Hulu, Paramount+, Peacock, and more. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a...
Apple Foldable Thumb

Foldable iPhone to Debut These Three Breakthrough Features

Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:09 am PST by
Apple's first foldable iPhone is expected to launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro models in fall 2026, and it's shaping up to include three standout features that could set it apart from the competition. The book-style foldable will reportedly feature an industry-first 24-megapixel under-display camera built into the inner display, according to a recent JP Morgan equity research report. That...
General Black Friday Deals 25 Red

Apple Black Friday Deals Available Now on AirPods, iPads, Accessories, and More

Friday November 21, 2025 8:48 am PST by
We're only a few days away from Black Friday, which will take place on Friday, November 28 in 2025. As always, this will be the best time of the year to shop for great deals, including popular Apple products like AirPods, iPad, Apple Watch, and more. In this article, the majority of the discounts will be found on Amazon. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When...
General Apps Messages Redux

Singapore Orders Changes to iMessage by December

Tuesday November 25, 2025 6:39 am PST by
Singapore has ordered Apple to block or filter messages on iMessage that impersonate government agencies, requiring the company to implement new anti-spoofing protections by December as part of efforts to curb rising online scams, the Straits Times reports. Singapore's Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said that it had issued an Implementation Directive to Apple under the Online Criminal Harms...
maxresdefault

The MacRumors Show: iPhone 18 Pro Looks Like a Huge Upgrade

Friday November 21, 2025 9:10 am PST by
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, we talk through all of the new features and improvements expected to come to next year's iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max models. Subscribe to The MacRumors Show YouTube channel for more videos Apple's next-generation iPhones are less than ten months away and we already have a good idea about what to expect based on corroborated leaks, rumors,...
iOS 26

iOS 26.2 Adds These New Features to Your iPhone

Thursday November 20, 2025 10:50 am PST by
iOS 26.2 is currently in beta testing. The upcoming update includes a handful of new features and changes on the iPhone, including a new Liquid Glass slider for the Lock Screen's clock, offline lyrics for Apple Music, and more. In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 26.2 will be released to all users in December, but it did not provide a specific release date. Keep reading...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

iOS 27 Will Reportedly Have Two Key Upgrades

Sunday November 23, 2025 8:48 am PST by
iOS 27 will reportedly have two major elements: quality improvements and new AI features. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said that iOS 27 will be similar to Mac OS X Snow Leopard, in the sense that Apple is focused on improving "quality and underlying performance" over adding new features. Gurman said there is one exception to this rule, though, as he expects...
iPhone Pocket Short

iPhone Pocket is Now Completely Sold Out Worldwide

Tuesday November 25, 2025 7:16 am PST by
Apple recently teamed up with Japanese fashion brand ISSEY MIYAKE to create the iPhone Pocket, a limited-edition knitted accessory designed to carry an iPhone. However, it is now completely sold out in all countries where it was released. iPhone Pocket became available to order on Apple's online store starting Friday, November 14, in the United States, France, China, Italy, Japan, Singapore, ...
apple news banner

Apple News Loses CNN

Monday November 24, 2025 7:56 am PST by
American multinational news company CNN has abruptly pulled its content from Apple News, Semafor reports. CNN quietly removed its stories from Apple News over the weekend and there is no longer a feed from the network to subscribe to in the app. This effectively ends its distribution agreement with Apple while the two sides negotiate new terms. Discussions are apparently ongoing and CNN's...

Top Rated Comments

dpace32 Avatar
159 months ago
Their plans are amazing... $30 a month for their Beyond Talk plan (http://www.virginmobileusa.com/cell-phone-plans/beyond-talk-plans/overview/) for an iPhone user to get unlimited data, unlimited text and 300 minutes.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jschultz Avatar
159 months ago
Cannot imagine how you can possibly be so lucky. For a phone that can do nothing but only used with one specific wireless provider with a <0.1% market share, it's impossible to hit a desirable buyer with just one post.

It's not entirely out of the realm of possibility. I too have sold prepaid phones (Blackberry Curve, LG Optimus V, HTC ONE V) that are tied to prepaid.

Yes, it's a small market share, but in a city of 2.7 million people and a MSA population of 9.7 million, you definitely get bites on Craigslist.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
acctman Avatar
159 months ago
Apple still has pre-order as late as November, yet they can ship stock to Virgin and other smaller carriers? I know companies like Virgin pay up front but what about the customers that already said 'hey Apple you can take my money' via a pre-order? :confused:
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iDuel Avatar
159 months ago
Virgin Mobile's only concern is that poor people keep paying their bills on time and that new poor people use their service. I don't think current poor people that are VM customers can afford new phones.

I think we've found the elitist comment of the day. #

I think Virgin Mobile has a smart business plan; you end up saving more money in the long run compared to the other post paid services.

I'll let you in on a secret, no matter rich or poor, people will always want to save money.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
macguy360 Avatar
159 months ago
Heres the deal and Sprint has confirmed it.

Sprint doesn't have enough spectrum for good LTE like Verizon and ATT.
Therefore, Sprint customers have crappy LTE speeds.

Think of spectrum like lanes on a tollway. You can buy an ez tag for ATT, Verizon or Sprint.

Sprint sells the cheapest ez tag but their tollway only has 2 lanes each direction and tons of poor people driving on it because they can't afford the more expensive ez tag.

Now think of Virgin Mobile and Boost mobile like an additional ez tag restriction forcing those customers to use only 1 lane of the 2 lane tollway.

In addition to being jampacked on that single lane, Sprint customers get priority for data throughput which essentially means someone throws a yield sign up on that tollway to allow Sprint customers to use both lanes while making boost mobile and virgin mobile customers wait (i.e. go slower)

Meanwhile ATT and Verizon customers are driving corvettes and ferraris down their 8 lane tollways with not a speed limit sign in site.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jschultz Avatar
159 months ago
I used Android on Virgin Mobile USA for a few years. great prices, but network speeds are dreadfully slow, unless you happen to be in one of their 4G covered areas.
We've got really good Sprint coverage in Chicago. My GSM iPhone 4 was a hand-me-down, so I migrated away from my HTC One V on Virgin Mobile to AT&T. Before my switch, I never had a single hiccup. My wife's still on it and gets 3G speeds at what is expected. I don't have any experience with 4G yet.


EDIT: If Virgin offered the 5S for as competitive of a price as they did for the 5 (as mentioned above) I would probably migrate back over from GoPhone to VM. This is relevant to my interests.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)