Cricket’s iPhone bid: $900 million over three years

We know that carriers that want to offer Apple’s iPhone won’t do so cheaply. As we mentioned this morning, Sprint is paying $20 billion for its inventory. Cricket, having about 50 million fewer subscribers than Sprint, clearly doesn’t have that kind of burden. They’re reportedly on the hook for $900 million over three years, though, which is a tremendous outlay. The report, which comes from Phil Goldstein at FierceWireless also contains a limiting revelation for Cricket.

While Cricket has expanded its coverage in the last few years, this has been mostly on the AWS band. The iPhone is not compatible with this spectrum band — it’s a major reason why T-Mobile does not offer the iPhone, nor is able to offer 3G services to former AT&T customers who bring unlocked iPhones. That means Cricket will not offer to sell the iPhone in big cities such Chicago, New York, and Boston. Thanks to a roaming agreement with Sprint customers can use their Cricket iPhones in those markets, but they will not be available for sale there.

Still, Cricket can sell the iPhone to 70 percent of its primary coverage area, which amounts to about 60 million potential customers. Those numbers do seem a bit small, especially for Cricket’s considerable outlay.

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