Cricket is set to introduce the US to prepaid iPhone service later this month, and we’ve heard rumors about the possibility for Boost Mobile to offer similar service in a few months, possibly during September. According to the Wall Street Journal, they’re not the only outfits in town with an eye on the iPhone, and Virgin Mobile could be next to add a prepaid iPhone to its stable, as soon as next month.

Just like the other prepaid iPhone options, a Virgin Mobile iPhone sounds attractive due to the carrier’s affordable monthly plans. With an on-contract iPhone, the absolute lowest bill you could hope for in the US would be AT&T’s $60 plan, with 300MB data, 450 voice minutes, and pay-per-use SMS. Virgin Mobile, on the other hand, offers an option with slightly fewer voice minutes (300) but unlimited SMS and data that’s not throttled until you hit 2.5GB, all for just $35 a month. Saving $25 a month on phone service will quickly offset any initial expense when buying the iPhone for full price; even the plan with 1200 minutes is still only $45 each month.

Then again, we can’t say with any certainty that Virgin wouldn’t amend its service options upon getting the iPhone (assuming it actually does start selling the phone next month), but any way you slice it, it’s still going to be cheaper than AT&T, Sprint, or Verizon.

This rumor doesn’t include any mention of just which iPhone models and storage capacities Virgin might hope to offer, so hopefully we’ll be hearing more about these plans as we get closer to July.

Source: The Wall Street Journal
Via: Engadget