Why You Should Unlock Your Cell Phone Articles | Cell Phone

By: Guy Starbuck

For the unenlightened, an unlocked phone is simply a GSM phone which isn’t tied down to any carrier in particular. What this means is that unlocking your cell phone will allow you use your phone with any GSM provider worldwide. All you have to do is place your SIM card into the phone and you can use the device and your SIM card immediately.

GSM is one of many digital technologies and it isn’t compatible with other technologies such as CDMA, TDMA or iDEN. The Subscriber Identity Module or SIM card is an account card that can be removed and which has a unique serial number identifying you to the provider of your wireless service. The GSM phone isn’t linked to anybody; you can simply put your SIM card into any phone that accepts it and use it. Your network identifies your SIM and not your phone so you can then switch providers without necessarily switching phones. This is unless the provider has programmed or locked the phone only to use SIM’s that have been issued by their own company.

In the United States, you can use either a phone with either T-Mobile or AT&T, the only current GSM wireless providers. If you travel abroad, you can swap out your SIM card for a foreign one.

Getting service for an unlocked phone is easy. The first thing you have to do is to order and sign up for a particular service. After you have your SIM card, the rest is easy; all you have to do is place it in your phone and start making your calls.

Checking whether a phone is unlocked or not, is easy too, all you have to do is place a SIM card from another phone account held with some other wireless provider into your own phone. If it works and displays the other phone number, then the phone is not locked. If an error message comes up or the phone refuses to work, then it must be locked.

Why would you want to unlock your wireless phone?
If you feel like changing your current wireless provider in the US and retaining your phone, unlocking your phone makes sense.

If you have changed your provider and gotten yourself a new phone and you want to use the other one as backup by changing SIM’s if you have a problem.

If you are going to travel overseas and you don’t feel like paying much higher international roaming rates.

How do you unlock your phone? There are basically two ways.

Phones may be unlocked by entering a code into them. These codes are unique numbers for that phone in particular.

Certain phones require a rewriting of their operating software in order to get rid of the lock. What this means is that the phone should be connected through the data cable to a special programming unit. A number of professional unlocking services exist and they will offer you this service at a small charge depending on the type of phone that you want them to unlock.