Yes and no. For example, if you buy a Google Pixel directly from Google, it's unlocked and can be used on any major carrier simply by putting a SIM card in it. Many people prefer to finance a new phone instead of paying full price for it upfront. Phone makers and phone carriers offer promotional credit plans to cover the price of your phone. Keep in mind, this financing is in addition to what you pay monthly to a phone carrier for a data plan.
That depends on your credit. Phone makers and major carriers offer promotional credit financing at 0 percent interest usually over 24 months. Obviously, if your credit is not great, your interest rate will be higher and in turn you will pay more for your phone.
It's worth noting that some credit offers require a cash deposit in addition to financing the cost of your phone -- again this is all dependent on your credit history. Apple will let you upgrade to a new iPhone as early as six months -- you just have to pay off half of the phone's cost and trade it back into Apple. Keep in mind, the phone is unlocked but must be activated in an Apple Store on one for the four major carriers. Also, the finance payment you're making to Apple is in addition to the cost of a monthly data plan.
Go to the carrier's BYOP page to check the compatibility of your new phone with the carrier's network -- ideally before you purchase the phone. If things are compatible, you'll be prompted to choose a data plan.
All of the carriers except T-Mobile charge you a one-time fee for activating a new phone or other device on their network. The good news is you don't have to. Just know that there are no financial advantages to buying a phone from a manufacturer or from a carrier -- locked or unlocked.
The real advantage to buying a phone from a carrier is the convenience of doing it all at once. Manufacturers store these codes in a database accessible by carriers and other third-party services. In turn, you must give T-Mobile the phone and purchase a new device through the company.
You can get a carrier-free phone from most retailers, including Amazon, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, and more. Cellular, and other prepaid carriers. Here we run into step 2 of the compatibility roadblock. T-Mobile openly provides its frequency list here , while you can find the other three here along with many other carriers like FreedomPop, Google Fi, Straight Talk, U. Cellular, and more. This data includes your mobile subscriber identity number, encryption keys, contacts, SMS messages, and more.
When you swap wireless carriers, you swap SIM cards as well. Originally introduced in , newer, smaller generations are t ypically released every six to eight years. What we have today is the nano-SIM card introduced in , measuring just over a square centimeter.
Some devices also use the new embedded SIM module eSIM mounted inside the device, eliminating the need for swappable, disposable cards that can be lost or damaged.
Due to the difference between SIM cards and eSIM modules, check if the unlocked smartphone you want to buy includes the latter eSIM module and if your wireless carrier supports it. This duality also provides better coverage, as you could switch from one network to another after moving into a dead area.
You can even use one SIM card locally and a separate card internationally, eliminating costly roaming fees. If you paid off the device and submitted an unlock request, the first method of checking its status is to remove the current SIM card and install another card from a different network. The method of unlocking a phone using a code depends on the device.
After requesting an unlock for an Android phone, customers receive a code from the carrier through a text message and an on-device pop-up window. The standard is not as widely used as GSM. In general, CDMA carriers don't reprovision devices made for other networks for use on their own networks. So this means phones made for Verizon, which are using the same basic technology as devices made for Sprint, won't work on Sprint's network. In other words, you can't reuse a Verizon device on Sprint and vice versa.
Almost every GSM device comes "prelocked" to a particular carrier. Certain phones are sold unlocked. And if you have a device that is locked, you can get it unlocked from your wireless carrier if you meet certain criteria, which includes paying the full price of your device or ending your contract and being in good standing with your service provider.
Complicating factors So that's the basic gist of how software locks for smartphones work. But things are getting a bit more complicated because now there's a new network technology that's currently used only for data services but will eventually be used for voice too. That technology is called LTE. This issue will soon change as chip manufacturers start including multiple radios on their semiconductors.
What's more, wireless operators will also soon be incorporating other slivers of spectrum into their LTE networks, which will overlap with their competitors. When these things all start to converge, we'll likely see more interoperability among devices that include support for the faster-speed LTE services. Remember that in the U. The GSM radio is included in these phones so that subscribers can roam onto networks in Europe and other parts of the world.
Verizon and Sprint subscribers can choose either to sign up for international roaming plans with their U. The reason why is that the spectrum Verizon is using to build its 4G LTE network had restrictions put on it by the Federal Communications Commission, which required the company to allow "open access" to the network. So as part of this provision, Verizon has decided not to lock those devices.
That said, its 3G devices are locked. So what does this mean for the average consumer? Let's take the iPhone 5 as an example. It's a 4G LTE device. A Verizon version of this phone comes unlocked out of the box. There aren't special codes that need to be entered in order to use it on another carrier's network. The same is true if you take the Verizon iPhone 5 to Europe. And it won't operate on a faster LTE network. And even though the phone is unlocked and uses the same CDMA technology and some of the same radio frequency channels as Sprint, an unlocked iPhone 5 won't operate on Sprint.
What are the explicit differences between a locked and unlocked phone? The difference between a locked and an unlocked phone is that a locked device has a software code on it that prevents you from taking a GSM-based device and using it on another GSM carrier's network.
An unlocked phone either doesn't have the lock software on it or someone was able to get a code that unlocks the software. Remember that this issue of locked and unlocked phones today is really only relevant when you're talking about devices made for GSM networks. As I explained above, most carriers use different frequencies and band plans for their LTE networks, so even without a software lock on the device, it still won't operate on these networks.
That will soon change, but for now don't expect unlocked LTE devices to perform at top speeds on any other carrier's LTE network. Why is the iPhone treated differently by carriers relative to other phones?
In the past, the iPhone was treated differently than other devices when it came to lock codes. So to control how and where the device was used, it refused to unlock it.
That's changed. Usually, this means the phone is fully paid for and the customers are no longer on a contract. And they have to be customers in "good standing" for a certain period of time. But if you have an LTE device from Verizon, you don't need an unlock code. The device is already unlocked.
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