Newest U.S. iPhone 4S Carrier: C Spire

CNN Money:

C Spire, a wireless carrier you’ve probably never heard of, announced Wednesday that it will become the fourth U.S. wireless provider to sell the iPhone 4S.

The regional carrier formerly known as Cellular South serves just under 900,000 customers, mostly in Mississippi. By contrast, Sprint, previously the smallest carrier to sell the iPhone, serves 52 million customers.

Why a tiny regional like C Spire and yet still not T-Mobile? My guess is that it’s because T-Mobile uses a different band for 3G than AT&T (and most other GSM carriers around the globe). C Spire is a regular CDMA carrier, so the iPhone 4S just works. Getting 3G to work on T-Mobile would require different GSM antenna hardware, I think. (Via Joe Stump.)

★ Thursday, 20 October 2011