For years, customers of other carriers were jealous of Apple iPhone users. Then the iPhone was made available to Verizon customers earlier this year. Now it is Sprint’s turn but did they pay too much for the privilege?

According to TechCrunch, details of the Sprint/Apple deal are starting to leak out and Sprint may have paid as much as $20 billion dollars and are locked in to sell a certain number of iPhones.

“Sprint CEO Dan Hesse has reportedly told the company’s board of directors that in order to nab the iPhone, they would have to commit to purchasing at least 30.5 million iPhones over the next four years. It’s a huge investment by any stretch — The Wall Street Journal pegs it at around $20 billion at current rates — but it’s made worse by the fact that Sprint will be locked into the purchasing agreement regardless of whether or not the iPhones actually sell. The board was said to have accepted Apple’s terms.”

I think Sprint might be banking on Apple and Verizon customers making the switch to Sprint if they have the iPhone 5 exclusively or because their unlimited data plans could be a huge cost savings.

Personally, I am loyal to Verizon. I could have made the switch to AT&T years ago but the quality of service wasn’t worth it for me. I don’t find Sprint service to be much better. Is Verizon’s service more expensive? Yes. But you get what you pay for and for me that is quality, reliable service. The one reason I might switch…the boyfriend. He is on Sprint and it might be worth the savings for both of us to be on the same carrier. But I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

But enough about me, will you make the switch? Is it worth it to switch your employees from one carrier to another? Is the potential savings worth the hassle?

Read more on TechCrunch ^[1].