Sprint's Virgin Mobile to Offer Pre-Paid iPhone June 29

Virgin Mobile USA is set to become the second U.S. mobile phone carrier to offer the Apple iPhone on a pay-as-you-go basis.

Confirming earlier rumors, the Sprint-owned pre-paid carrier announced Thursday that it will begin offering the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S on June 29. The basic model 8GB iPhone 4 will be available for $549 while the 16GB iPhone 4S will sell for $649.

Virgin Mobile will offer the coveted smartphone with unlimited data and messaging plans starting from $35 per month, with a $5 monthly discount possible for buyers who register for automatic payments with a credit card, debit card, or PayPal account. The cheapest plan provides 300 minutes of calling, plus unlimited texting and data. The "unlimited" data, however, throttles after 2.5GB.

The carrier will also offer two other plans ???$40 per month (with discount) for 1,200 minutes and $50 per month (with discount) for unlimited calling.

"This month marks Virgin Mobile USA's tenth birthday," Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, said in a statement. "And what better way to thank our fans for ten years of loyalty than by giving them exactly what they want: the perfect plan for the perfect phone."

The Apple smartphone will be available to Virgin Mobile customers via virginmobileusa.com/iphone, and at Radio Shack, Best Buy, and other select local retailers. Customers can sign up to receive a reminder when Virgin Mobile starts selling the iPhone.?

Just last week, Cricket Communications announced that it will be the first pre-paid carrier in the U.S. to offer the iPhone.

Cricket, a subsidiary of Leap Wireless, will start selling the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S to prepaid customers on June 22 with its $55 per month, unlimited talk, text, and data plan. On Cricket's plan, the 16GB iPhone 4S will be available for $499.99 and the 8GB iPhone 4 will be available for $399.99. Both will come in black or white.

T-Mobile is currently the only major U.S. carrier that does not yet have the iPhone, thanks to network incompatibilities. Sprint jumped on board with the release of the iPhone 4S.

In April, a number of regional carriers landed the coveted Apple smartphone, including nTelos, Cellcom, and GCI.

For more, see PCMag's full review of the iPhone 4S and the slideshow below.

For more from Angela, follow her on Twitter @amoscaritolo.

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