Up until now, the only way to get an iPhone in the United States is through a postpaid plan. That’s going to change on June 22, as Cricket is going to offer the Apple iPhone on a prepaid basis. Yes, you can finally get a prepaid iPhone.

To make things even more interesting, Cricket Wireless is getting really competitive with its $55 monthly plan. This is an unlimited plan with as many minutes and text messages as you’d like to use. They say it comes with unlimited data, but their definition of unlimited is limited to 2.3GB of “fair use.”

Apple commented on the announcement: “By making iPhone available on pre-paid plans through Cricket Wireless, we are making the best smartphone more accessible to an even broader market in the US,” Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop.

The non-contract prepaid price for the iPhone is roughly on par with the unlocked model that you can get in other markets, if not slightly cheaper. You can get the 16GB iPhone 4S for $499.99 or, if you want to save a hundred bucks, the regular 8GB iPhone 4 can be had for $399.99 outright.

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