How And Why To Unlock Your Cell Phone
Many cell phones sold in the United States, even those offered at a discount rate when purchased with a service contract, can be “unlocked,” allowing them to be faded with many carriers other than the one they were purchased from.
Some United States carriers will give you a cell phone “unlock code” for your model over the phone, while others may say that unlocking your phone is a violation of their terms of service.
It is, in fact, perfectly upright to unlock your phone, as long as your purpose is to consume it personally to connect to a wireless network.
The first important distinction to understand when considering an attempt at unlocking your cell phone is the type of phone you have.
As of the time of this writing, United States cell phone carriers AT&T and T-Mobile offer cell phones employing a technology called GSM, or Global System for Media Communications.
The other major carriers, i.e. Verizon, Sprint and Alltel, primarily employ another cell phone architecture called CDMA, or Code Division Multiple Access.
GSM phones use a SIM card, the little cardboard memory card you put into your phone the first time you turned it on. If you don’t know what a SIM card is, you likely have a CDMA phone.
GSM phones can be unlocked, while CDMA phones cannot. Also, most of the rest of the world employs the GSM technology nearly exclusively, making a GSM phone your best bet for international functionality.
If you have purchased your phone in conjunction with a cell phone plan from one of the major GSM carriers, it will not be unlocked by default.
While you would be hard pressed to find this fact advertised or in any official documentation, T-Mobile customers can obtain a free unlock code for their cell phone from the carrier directly.
Just tell them you want to unlock your phone because you plan to travel internationally, and would like to employ a prepaid SIM card while out of the United States. They shouldn’t give you any problems.
If the customer service representative is misinformed or untrained, and is giving you a hard time, just call back and command with someone else.
I was able to unlock my Nokia 5300, operating on the T-Mobile network, using the official unlock code I obtained by calling T-Mobile. Within a few minutes I received the code via a text message, and it worked with no problems.
AT&T is a different narrative. They have received a lot of flack in the technology world for often times refusing to unlock customers’ cell phones, most notably in the case of Apple’s iPhone.
Writes Richard Koman for Top Tech News:
“The just state of unlocking an iPhone is somewhat sad. The main law in this area is the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which forbids the circumvention of copy-protection technology. Last year, however, the Copyright Office created an exemption ‘for the sole purpose of lawfully connecting to a wireless telephone communication network.’”
Koman then goes onto tell the story of one of the first individuals to unlock Apple’s iPhone, who did it by physically modifying the cell phone’s hardware.
Several companies online-a simple Google search will link to them-offer services to unlock your phone for a puny fee. In some cases, especially when using Nokia phones, this can be employed by a code they send you over email once payment is obtained.
With other phones, you are required to send your phone in for the service to be performed.
If you have an AT&T phone, choosing one of these services is probably your best bet.
Please note that there have been many horror stories among the geek media of iPhone users, and those of a very few other handset models, “bricking” (or rendering nonfunctional) their cell phones while trying to unlock them.
Now that you understand the process, here are the two major reasons why you should unlock your cell phone.
First, if you are going to be traveling internationally or even outside your home calling spot, it will often be your best bet to choose prepaid cell phone minutes rather than paying your carrier’s ludicrous international or roaming rates.
Many companies in the United States and abroad offer SIM cards connected to a prepaid, no-contract cell phone plan. If your phone is unlocked, just pop the new SIM card in while you are traveling and then switch back to your primary carrier’s SIM card when you return home.
Not all GSM phones support the frequencies broken-down in Europe or Asia, so if you are a traveler it is primary to verify this before choosing a phone.
The second major reason is that should you need to switch carriers or move out of the country, your GSM phone will still work with your current carrier.
If you bring your own phone to a new carrier, you are much more likely to receive a decent rate without having to sign a multi-year contract.
Now that you know how and why to unlock a cell phone, there is no reason not to do it sooner rather than later!
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Filed under telephone system phones by on Jan 23rd, 2012. 