The ubiquitous iPhone is extending its reach in the smartphone market yet again, this time hitting prepaid cell phone service provider Cricket, a subsidiary of Leap Wireless.
Cricket announced on May 31 that it will begin offering the 8GB iPhone 4 and the 16GB iPhone 4S starting June 22, becoming the first prepaid cell phone carrier to offer the device.
Available for $399.99 and $499.99, respectively, both the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S will come with a $55 monthly no-contract plan of unlimited talking and texting and 2.3GB of data; unfortunately, if the data limit is surpassed, Cricket will start throttling connection speeds.
As the Wall Street Journal points out, Cricket's price offerings for the devices are much higher than that of other carriers, such as AT&T, which is currently selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S for $99.99 and $199.99, respectively; however, buyers are required to sign up for a 2-year contract and purchase a monthly data plan.
AT&T was the only carrier to offer the iPhone 4 and previous models of the device until February 2011, when Verizon Wireless broke AT&T's exclusive hold on the iPhone. Since then, Sprint, C-Spire and now Cricket have jumped on the iPhone bandwagon.
Interested prepaid iPhone buyers can sign up to learn more about the device's release by on Cricket's website.