Earlier this month, five regional U.S. carriers announced that they would begin carrying the iPhone 4 and 4S. All were offering the devices at $50 less than the standard list prices of the larger national carriers (AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint). All five carriers are in more rural areas of the country that aren’t well served by the national carriers. Two are in Alaska, for example.
The list of carriers and the markets they serve includes:
- Alaska Communications – Alaska
- GCI – Alaska
- Appalachian Wireless – Kentucky
- Cellcom – Wisconsin
- nTelos – Virgina and surrounding areas
The five carriers join Mississippi-based C-Spire and Puerto Rico’s Claro Puerto Rico, which began offering the iPhone late last year .
The carriers offer a mix of regional and national calling plans. Their data packages are roughly similar to those offered by AT&T and Verizon, though nTelos does offer a unlimited data plan (which may be throttled for heavy data users).
If you live in an area serviced by these carrier’s the $50 discount places the iPhone 4 as pretty good deal for $49.
It’s worth noting that T-Mobile remains the lone national carrier in the U.S. that doesn’t offer the iPhone due to its use of diffrent spectrum bands for 3G service. The company is optimistic about offering the iPhone in the future as it retools its network to be more in line with the spectrum used by other carriers.
