vB Easy Archive - what does it mean to "unlock" your phone?

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what does it mean to "unlock" your phone?
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Posted by: Cool2bme

I have seen a lot of stuff on the internet and on Ebay about unocking your phone, or phones that are already unlocked, or tools for unlocking them. I have an 8390, from Rogers AT&T. What does all this unlocking stuff mean? Why would you want to unlock your phone? Is it illegal? Do I get free airtime or something? Call me a newbie, but I know nothing about this whole "unlock your phone" craze, and I'm quite curious.

Posted by: ikonosin

"unlocked" is refering to not being locked to a network. So someone with an AT&T sim card could put it into an unlocked verizon phone...It's handy when selling your phone, because then anyone could use it.

Posted by: specialized999

When you buy most GSM Phones from providers, they are usually locked onto their network. Meaning that when you buy an AT&T GSM Phone (BTW GSM phones take SIM cards that go into the phone to register the phone on the SIM Card's provider Network) it will only work with AT&T SIM Cards.

Therefore your phone will use AT&T's towers for reception.

Unlocking means that your phone can be used with ANY provider's SIM Card. Meaning that if you bought an AT&T phone and had it unlocked, you could use a Fido, AT&T, T-Mobile, or any other GSM provider's SIM card in it whereas if it wasn't unlocked, your phone would say "invalid SIM" and not let you use that card.

BTW Verizon phones are CDMA (Different Technology than GSM) and do not take SIM cards. Therefore you cannot put a SIM card into a Verizon phone. Although if you got one to work, I'd be really interested on how.

spec999

Unlocking provides GSM Provider Freedom.

Posted by: sirius1722

Unlocked GSM phones also mean you can get the coolest phones from overseas before their US release, provided they're compatible with US frequencies! Ah, the wonders of GSM....