If you’re looking to buy a smartphone at the moment, or you might have shopped for a smartphone over the last few years, you might have come across unlocked smartphones. But, many people still don’t know what unlocked phones really are and why people should consider buying one. Well, you don’t need to worry because we’ve created this guide for you so that you can learn more about unlocked phones.
What are unlocked phones?
To summarize, unlocked phones are not tied to a single carrier. You can switch from one mobile carrier to another, by swapping the sim cards which are the pass that connects your phone to a specific network.
There are a lot of benefits of using an unlocked phones vs a locked phones. The main advantage is that it is very handy to change your mobile network. You don’t have to buy a new phone to change your mobile carrier, you just have to open the sim tray and pop in the new sim card and voila you’ve got a brand new mobile carrier. This benefits people who are looking for the cheapest mobile services with the best packages and therefore, it saves a lot of cash as you don’t have to spend a large sum on buying a new mobile phone. This advantage exceeds that of people who travel overseas frequently. Most of the time it is cheaper to use a local sim card rather than using your country’s sim card. And, again you just simply open the sim tray and pop in the local sim card and kaboom you’ve got enough savings to spend a weekend at the bar.
So, the question arises how do you get your phone unlocked.
The answer is it depends on how you got your phone in the first place. For instance if you bought your phone directly from the manufacturer like Apple, or Samsung, your phone would already be unlocked. But, if you bought your phone through a network carrier like AT&T, it might not be unlocked.
Every mobile carrier has a different policy when it comes to unlocking the phones bought through them.AT&T requires you to pay off your phone and be active on your service for at least 60 days. Even then, the company still requires you to wait 14 days to make your request. Sprint also requires that your phone be paid off. And it requires a 50-day wait, though the phone is automatically unlocked. T-Mobile also requires the phone to be paid for in full, and it has a 40-day wait period. But it will offer customers traveling abroad a temporary unlock code.
Recent Comments