Alaska Communications Also Offering the iPhone April 20

I wonder how they were able to get a better subsidy price than other carriers? On average, it costs a cell phone company about $400 to find a new customer...the subsidy on the iPhone is $450, making it cheaper to find a new customer than pay the subsidy. I wonder if they are taking the extra $50 hit, and if Apple allowed them to do this? They are usually pretty strict about making sure their product is the same price everywhere...