Cricket, C Spire, GCI, Bluegrass Cellular and Appalachian Wireless landing the iPhone 5 on September 28

Regional United States carriers C Spire and prepaid wireless operator Cricket Wireless will begin offering Apple’s latest iPhone 5 on Friday, September 28, it has been confirmed. Additionally, Alaska’s GCI, Bluegrass Cellular and Appalachian Wireless announced September 28 availability of the iPhone 5, a week after the device becomes available on AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in the United States…

Cricket Wireless, a prepaid subsidiary of Leap Wireless, announced in a media release that the iPhone 5 arrives in “select Cricket markets” on Friday, September 28. Cricket has more than six million subscribers and offers unlimited data plans with a monthly 2.3GB bandwidth cap.

Another regional carrier, C Spire, also issued a release confirming September 28 launch. C Spire files as the first regional U.S. carrier that landed Apple’s phone last November. Neither carrier would reveal price points at post time.

Cricket was the first United States carrier to land the prepaid iPhone 4/4S in June. At the time, Apple representative Natalie Harrison told The Loop that “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“.

It would appear that Apple’s strategy of making “the best smartphone more accessible to an even broader market in the US” extends to the new iPhone 5.

In addition to C Spire and Cricket, GCI of Alaska, Appalachian Wireless, Kentucky-based Bluegrass Cellular will also start selling the iPhone 5 on September 28.

Techno Buffalo claimed in June that Irvine, California-headquartered Boost Mobile, a Sprint Nextel property, would be getting a prepaid iPhone “in early September” and we think they meant the iPhone 5.

Because of the differences in LTE cellular radio technology from one carrier to another, Apple had to produce three carrier-specific versions of the iPhone 5. The device supports HSPA, HSPA+ and DC-HSDPA, in addition to 4G LTE and dual-band 802.11n wireless connectivity.

With this news, we are expecting other regional carriers to land the iPhone soon. In addition, we also think Apple could/should offer the unlocked iPhone 5 via its online store as soon as the company starts accepting pre-orders for the device tomorrow.

Initially, the iPhone 5 will launch in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore on September 21.

The second phase of the global roll out will see the device arrive in an additional 22 countries on September 28: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

The company plans to have the iPhone 5 available in a hundred countries by Christmas.

The iPhone 5 comes in white & silver or black & slate in the same three storage configurations: 16GB, 32GB and 64GB for $199, $299, and $399 respectively, with a two-year contract.

Are you excited about the expanded iPhone 5 availability?