U.S. Cellular CEO Mary Dillon recently said on a conference call that her company turned down a chance to sell Apple’s iPhone. Dillon explained that Apple’s “terms were unacceptable from a risk and profitability standpoint,” FierceWireless noted on Friday. All is not lost if you are a U.S. Cellular customer looking to carry the iPhone, however; Dillon didn’t rule out possibly picking up the device at a later date. As FierceWireless points out, it is a bit strange that U.S. Cellular turned down the device when another regional carrier, C Spire, announced recently that it will begin offering the phone on November 11th with an unlimited data package (sans streaming). Perhaps U.S. Cellular is holding out to see how C Spire fares with the iPhone and Apple’s “unacceptable terms.” Or maybe the carrier is waiting for a 4G LTE iPhone — Dillon explained that U.S. Cellular expects to blanket 25% of its network with 4G LTE by the end of this year, with phones launching in early 2012.

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