Tired of having a cell phone contract that threatens to take your first born for cancelling said contract to early? Not to mention having your bill slowly but surely increase every month? But even after all that, you still don’t cancel your contract (even though you’ve pretty much signed over your soul) because you don’t want to give up your iPhone (after all it is part of the family, right?) Well, after years of wishing and hoping for another alternative, your wishes have been answered.
Leap Wireless is stepping up and starting to offer the iPhone to you and yours with no insane contracts that bind you and your soul. Leap Wireless, who also is the parent company to Cricket Mobile Service, firstly intended to sell phones and phone plans without having crazy contracts to lower income families and homes, but I really think that the buying crowd will be much more diverse.
Why? Mainly because big wireless provider companies are starting to raise prices and extend contracts more and more. Cell phone providers are getting away with murder when it comes to your cell phone bill because they offer exclusive phones that you want. But what happens when they start losing their exclusiveness? Enter Leap Wireless and exit your contracted and caged iPhone.
The Good and The Bad
For around $55 dollars a month you can have an unlimited wireless plan for your iPhone, and we are talking a month to month agreement, not a life commitment. But there are a few downsides going this route, and because of that Leap Motion is only predicting around 10% of their users to sign up. Why such a small percentage?
Well, your iPhone is going to run you a pretty penny. For the iPhone 4S you will be spending about $499.99 of those pennies and for the iPhone 4, $399.99. For those of you playing at home, that is about a $150-$300 dollar difference from the leading contract based providers. Leap Wireless is hopeful that without having to spend a fortune in contract fees and payments that people will sink their cash into their phones instead.
Also, the iPhone will only be available in certain parts of Leap Wireless’ network areas; only around 70% actually (these areas include New York, Austin, Dallas, Salt Lake City and Denver).
Contracted to Un-Contract You
Leap Wireless actually made quite a big commitment to Apple, which included Leap Wireless agreeing to buy iPhone models in bulk and a three year contract. How many iPhones did Leap Motion happen to buy? A cool 900 million dollars worth.
Doug Hutcheson, president and CEO of Leap Wireless, seemed pretty amped up when he released this statement about Leap Wireless offering the iPhone:
“Our customers want the best products available and we are excited to bring iPhone to our prepaid consumers with an industry-leading $55 per-month service plan,” and that “Launching iPhone is a major milestone for us and we are proud to offer iPhone customers attractive nationwide coverage, a robust 3G data network and a value-packed, no-contract plan.”
So when can you start flocking to Leap Wireless for your uncaged iPhone? An anonymous source in the industry says it can be as early as June 15. But in all honesty, we know when it comes to iPhones, no date can ever truly be secured down.
