Cricket or Virgin: What's best iPhone deal?

— -- Question: How do the Cricket Wireless and Virgin Mobile prepaid iPhone deals compare?

Answer: Both offer the potential to save a great deal of money compared to the contracts available through AT&T, Sprint or Verizon Wireless (the cheapest among them is a $59.99 option from AT&T with only 300 megabytes of data and zero text messages a month).

Cricket hopped into the market first, announcing May 31 that on June 22, it would start selling the 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S and the 8 GB version of the iPhone 4 for $499.99 and $399.99. That's about $150 less than what Apple charges for unlocked versions of those models. That's about $150 less than what Apple charges for unlocked versions of those models. It will offer one price plan, a $55/month bundle of unlimited texting and talking, plus 2.3 gigabytes of 3G broadband (after which your download speeds can be cut to under 100 kilobits per second).

Virgin Mobile USA, a division of Sprint, followed with a different pitch: $649 for the 16 GB iPhone 4S and $549 for the 8 GB iPhone 4, representing no discount from Apple, but a cheaper selection of plans. Beginning June 29, you can pay $50 a month for unlimited talk and text and 2.5 GB of full-speed access (after which speeds drop to under 256 kbps); a $40 option "only" covers 1,200 minutes, while a $30 plan includes 300 minutes.

Neither company requires a contract. You could buy an iPhone from Cricket or Virgin, use it for a month, then operate it only on Wi-Fi until you care to pay for a new month of service. But you're still getting a "real" iPhone, with the same Apple software as any other and the same iOS 6 upgrade this fall.

By the numbers alone, Virgin offers the greatest potential savings. Its $30 plan would save $300 a year over Cricket, but even its $40 plan — with far more calling minutes included than the average American uses— saves enough over a year to offset Cricket's cheaper upfront price.

Virgin also offers a wider usable network. Although Cricket relies on the same Sprint network to fill in gaps in its own network, it will only sell the iPhone in markets where it provides service on PCS (Personal Communications Service) frequencies. In its AWS (Advanced Wireless Service) territory, a Cricket iPhone will still work but customers can't buy one.

But for one group of customers, a Cricket iPhone could be enormously helpful: Those who travel overseas. Cricket says it will keep the SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card slot on its iPhone 4S unlocked for international use.

Virgin, by contrast, will keep its iPhone locked, spokeswoman Jayne Wallace said, while Sprint, Verizon and AT&T impose varying restrictions on subscribers hoping to get an iPhone unlocked. (Sprint makes you wait until you've had 90 days in good standing on a contract, while AT&T will only unlock an iPhone after you're out of contract).

But with Cricket, publicist Greg Lund confirmed, you could buy an iPhone, pay for a month of service to activate it on Cricket's network, then take the device on the plane and pop in a prepaid SIM when you arrive overseas.

The carrier will, however, keep its iPhone locked against use with other carriers in the U.S.