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Sprint to Join AT&T and Verizon in Offering iPhone 5 at 'Mid-October' Launch

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macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Sprint will offer the iPhone 5 when it launches later this year, becoming the third U.S. carrier to offer the iPhone. According to the report, the iPhone 5 will launch simultaneously on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T in "mid-October".
Sprint Nextel Corp. will begin selling the iPhone 5 in mid-October, people familiar with the matter said, closing a huge hole in the No. 3 U.S. carrier's lineup and giving Apple Inc. another channel for selling its popular phone.

The timing, however, indicates Apple's new iPhone will hit the market later than expected and too late to contribute to sales in the company's fiscal fourth quarter, which ends in September. Most observers had expected the device to arrive next month.
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The iPhone 5 will debut on AT&T and Verizon at the same time, and Sprint is said to also be gaining the iPhone 4.

AT&T was the exclusive iPhone carrier in the United States until earlier this year, when Apple released a CDMA version of the iPhone 4 for Verizon. Sprint also operates a CDMA network.

Article Link: Sprint to Join AT&T and Verizon in Offering iPhone 5 at 'Mid-October' Launch
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/08/23/sprint-to-join-att-and-verizon-in-offering-iphone-5-at-mid-october-launch/
chrmjenkins

chrmjenkins

macrumors 603
Oct 29, 2007
5,325
158
MD
Makes sense since exclusivity is broken. I doubt we'll see a T-mobile launch ever unless the merger falls through.
 
G

g-boac

macrumors 6502
Oct 7, 2007
291
1
interesting. Curious as to whether AT&T will offer incentives and early upgrade opportunities to contracted / iPhone4 customers in an effort to extend their contracted term, rather than risking a defection to a rival carrier in relatively short order.
 
H

herocero

macrumors regular
Jan 23, 2003
148
127
down on the upside
Lightsquared

Sprint's partnership with lightsquared makes more sense now, WiMax (mostly clearwire) is broke and dead, with Sprint gaining an LTE avenue they will also gain access to a 4G LTE iPhone in the future. Access to the CDMA iPhone 4/5 before the LTE version is just icing on the cake.
 
7o7munoz7o7

7o7munoz7o7

macrumors regular
Jun 30, 2010
181
0
Bay Area
this is huge!!! iPhone is already the number 1 selling smartphone....this will put it light years ahead of everyone elses numbers!
 
D

dvswede

macrumors member
Sep 17, 2010
32
0
If they keep their low unlimited plans or allow me on a month to month plan then I will probably switch
 
D

dexthageek

macrumors 6502
Dec 7, 2007
391
0
TDPHunter said:
Sprint has the best unlimited plan too... I wouldn't mind switching to them for that.
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If sprint is still offering their unlimited plan w/tethering I will be switching. Unfortunately, I would put money on Sprint moving to tiered data like the rest. :(
 
N

Nikkoli

macrumors newbie
Aug 23, 2011
1
0
It would be great to see this. I would switch to an iPhone in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, if its true, then it makes it much less likely that the iPhone 5 will have LTE. I personally think it would be a mistake not going LTE in the iPhone 5 since nearly every android phone you can buy today seems to be getting some form of 4G.
 
M

macrumors12345

Suspended
Mar 1, 2003
410
0
azentropy said:
I'm really hoping they open it up to all carriers, including prepaid like Virgin Mobile.
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Problem is, the entry price for an 8 GB iPhone 4 would be at least $350-400, as opposed to $150 or less for the low-end Android phones. I guess they could keep the 3GS around and perhaps offer that for ~$250, but I kind of doubt they'll do that in the US...
 
Y

Yumunum

macrumors 65816
Apr 24, 2011
1,452
0
U.S.
azentropy said:
I'm really hoping they open it up to all carriers, including prepaid like Virgin Mobile.
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That would require so many complications. I hate to say this but definitely DON'T count on it :/ if you're going prepaid, look at the new Motorola Android phone (forgot the name) for Virgin Mobile. Great little phone, on par with normal Android phones
 
smithrh

smithrh

macrumors 68030
Feb 28, 2009
2,722
1,730
chrmjenkins said:
Makes sense since exclusivity is broken. I doubt we'll see a T-mobile launch ever unless the merger falls through.
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The merger is no sure thing whatsoever.

Even if the merger does go through, the restrictions placed on it by the DOJ would probably mean that there would be a decently-sized third party entity left with many of Tmobs customers left.

If Apple added the right bands to this phone, it's a no-brainer to offer it to all major carriers.
 
C

cvaldes

macrumors 68040
Dec 14, 2006
3,237
0
somewhere else
politicsoffear said:
How about T-Mobile?
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It would be foolish to make any sort of assumption about the availability of the iPhone on any given network based on rumors about competing carriers.

Meaning, we don't know, nothing is certain until Apple.com has an official statement and whatever you just read about Sprint has nothing to do with T-Mobile USA.
 
bigjnyc

bigjnyc

macrumors 604
Apr 10, 2008
7,851
6,717
what would be really awesome is if the rumors about a dual-chip iphone are true... Imagine buying a full price out of contract iphone and being able to choose between CDMA and GSM carriers. Now that would be schweeet :cool:
 
C

CherryJello

macrumors regular
May 30, 2009
162
0
Mid October...late September...which is it going to be? These iPhone 5 rumors are all over the place
 
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