Pre-paid carrier Cricket has become the first of its kind to announce availability for the iPhone 5—the device that was introduced yesterday at a media event in San Francisco. The iPhone 5 will be available on Cricket beginning Sept. 28, which is one week after it becomes available on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in the United States. Past a launch date, Cricket has not provided any information on its launch page nor in its press release seen below in regards to pricing. We will let you know when more information becomes available.

The iPhone 4S first launched on Cricket on June 22. It also launched with several other pre-paid carriers in many regions around the country to “make the best smartphone more accessible to an even broader market,” Apple stated. We suspect Cricket will not be alone in offering the iPhone 5. [Cricket]

Update: C Spire, a Mississippi area regional, just announced it will also carry the iPhone September 28th.

Update 2: Alaska’s GCI and Appalachian Wireless are also in on the September 28th parade.

Update 3: Kentucky-based Bluegrass Cellular will have iPhone 5 on September 28th too. 

  • iPhone 5 preorders start Sept. 14 for $199, $299, $399, ships in 9 countries on Sept. 21 (9to5mac.com)
  • Sprint and Verizon clarify iPhone 5 plans: Sprint pre-orders begin at 12:01am Sept. 14th, Verizon requires that you pay full price to keep your unlimited data plan (9to5mac.com)
  • Apple announces iPhone 5, bigger screen, aluminum and glass ‘best phone ever’ (9to5mac.com)
  • Updated: Trade-in your old iPhone for a shiny new iPhone 5 (9to5mac.com)

Cricket Communications, a leading provider of innovative and value-driven wireless services, and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Leap Wireless International, Inc. (NASDAQ: LEAP), today announced it will offer iPhone 5, the thinnest and lightest iPhone ever, to customers in select Cricket markets in the U.S. beginning Friday, September 28. For more information please visit: www.mycricket.com/iphone5. For more information on iPhone 5, please visit: www.apple.com/iphone.

About Cricket

Cricket is the pioneer and leader in delivering innovative value-rich prepaid wireless services with no long-term contracts serving approximately 6 million customers. Cricket offers wireless voice and mobile data services over the latest, high-quality, all-digital 4G (LTE) and 3G CDMA wireless networks. In 2011, Cricket launched its award-winning Muve Music® product, the first music service designed for a wireless phone that now has more than 600,000 customers. Cricket’s innovative products and services are available at Cricket branded retail stores, dealers, national retailers and at www.mycricket.com.  For more information about Cricket, please visit www.mycricket.com.