Why buy an unlocked phone over a carrier phone?

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Jaguar10301

Member
Apr 22, 2012
7
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Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

Yet people say they prefer to do it.

So that you aren't trapped in a 2 year contract. You re-pay that discount you get over the life of the contract. If more people were not locked into contract and went to the lowest priced carriers it would force overall prices down, contracts keep people trapped and thus put less incentive on the companies to lower prices.
 

alpha-niner64

Senior Member
Mar 7, 2011
496
99
I noticed that unlocked phones show they support all the major bands. Whereas the locked phones only show their respective bands. For example: the SGS2 T-Mobile only shows their UMTS bands being 1700/2100, 2100 vs the Unbranded one which has 850/900/1900/2100 and then there's the Gnex that has 850, 900, 1700/2100, 1900, 2100. Does that mean that potentially the unlocked versions could have better 3G+ reception?

I have my M-Defy here and switching basebands to the 850/1700/2100 gave me great 3G reception in my house, whereas my branded Vibrant barely has any 3G reception and often switches to EDGE as I learned it only supports 1700/2100, 1900, 2100. This is also backed up by the fact that unlocked carrier phones are limited to only their GSM speeds since all GSM frequencies are supported on any phone but the UMTS bands are special to each carrier: the iPhone for example plays a huge role here and ever since TMO acquired some AT&T Spectrum: my iphone 3G does get 3G coverage and AT&T's 3G does cover the 850 spectrum.
 
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sitizenx

Senior Member
Dec 18, 2007
322
47
If more people were not locked into contract and went to the lowest priced carriers it would force overall prices down, contracts keep people trapped and thus put less incentive on the companies to lower prices.

No. Quality of service keeps people "trapped." I had a pay as you go phone for years and switched to at&t because their service was better. I got a contract because I got a cheap phone and I could apply a work discount to the plan. I also got a grandfathered data plan.

at&t has free Lumia 900s and an "unlimited" LTE data plan that allegedly they don't start throttling until 5gb. Which non-contract carrier is offering all of that?

If I had a landline and I was just going to do some texting and light voice usage I would go with a pay as you go service assuming it had good voice service in my area. My problem with say Tmobile was its voice service sucked at one place I visited often. There was a time I made two hour drives in rural areas on a regular basis. It sucked. I had a phone and minutes and I couldn't use them because the service was so bad out there. So I just sat in the car for two hours. After about a year of that I joined at&t. Never had a problem with service again.


You re-pay that discount you get over the life of the contract.

With a contract I am buying the NETWORK. Simply getting a contract solely for a phone does not make sense.
 

alpha-niner64

Senior Member
Mar 7, 2011
496
99
With a contract I am buying the NETWORK. Simply getting a contract solely for a phone does not make sense.

You'd be surprised at just how many people do just that. They renew their contract: use their upgrade to buy the phone, then sell said phone for a premium on Craigslist, Ebay, Amazon, etc. Meanwhile obviously retaining their old phone for use. What does the carrier care? You're still paying their rates so it's not their business to ask what you do with your newly-acquired/newly-sold phones.
 

peteygnyc

Member
Mar 14, 2011
10
0
Long Island
Silly question

This MAY be a silly question, but if the hardware is exactly the same (obviously, GSM and CDMA are different) but why can't you just re-flash a phone like a Galaxy S5 with an "Unlocked phone ROM"?
Again, I might get blasted for this, but couldn't you just re-flash it?

-Pete
 

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  • 5
    Unless of course you want to use it on different networks, ie international.

    Carrier phone comes with those fat discounts, so i don't know why anyone would ever PREFER to pay full retail?

    Yet people say they prefer to do it.

    The unlocked international versions are often available before the US carriers release their modified versions. They also often have higher resale values for people who like to switch phones a lot.
    1
    Less bloatware is a big part of it, I think, but there are also contractual benefits. It's sometimes easier to cancel a plan without paying a hefty termination fee if you paid for the phone outright. Additionally, certain plans (e.g. T-Mobile's "best plan ever") do not provide subsidies for good phones (e.g. HTC Sensation). Basically, it's a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. You can buy the phone outright and then get a cheaper plan or buy a subsidized phone with a more expensive plan. If you plan on keeping your phone more than 2 years and/or switching carriers, it's a good investment to get the cheaper plan.
    1
    Unbranded phone=$10 unlimited data on at&t.
    1
    •Unlocked to use anywhere
    •More resale value
    •No bloatware from carriers
    •Faster / more direct updates without needing carrier approval
    •Usually more dev support since carriers variants isolate models from one another
    •Availability much before carrier versions (mostly, depends on exclusivity)
    1
    I should have modified my post up there :)
    Anyway, a special thank to adelmundo and few others that help me to adjust my mindset about this. I never heard of StraightTalk plan b4.
    Can you provide some info about the plan?
    I've tried to search but very confuse about what it is? Is it a AT&T pre-paid plan? or is it a company that using other phone provider services?

    Straight Talk is an MVNO that provides prepaid mobile plans in the USA. They sell the phones and refill cards at Walmart and online and they use either AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint depending on what phone you purchase. Before you wanted to to get your unlocked phone on Straight Talk, you would have to buy a phone from them such as the Nokia N71, and take the SIM card and put it into your unlocked phone.

    However a few months ago, Straight Talk introduced a Bring Your Own Device option where you could purchase a SIM card from them for $15 and then put it into your phone and pay $45/month for their unlimited everything plan.

    Keep in mind though that although they advertise as Unlimited everything, there are some caveats to what "unlimited" really means. The voice and texting for the most part is unlimited, but there is no roaming I believe. Where the problem lies is the data part of unlimited. In their TOS, you are not allowed to stream music or video (like YouTube, Netflix, Pandora, etc.) Some people have been given warnings and have even had their SIM deactivated when they used to much data. On the safe side, some people have gone by the under 100 MB/day or 2 GB/month of data use to be safe. No one knows exactly what Straight Talk's criteria is or how they can determine if you're streaming or not. Most times they will give you a warning or 2 before they cut you off. If you look in howardforums.com, there are threads about Straight Talk, but as I have said, know one knows their exact criteria.

    Most of the time I am on WIFI at work or at home, so I use very little 3G data. Their speeds are good if you do use 3G. You can even get HSPA+ (aka Faux G) if you have a phone capable of it. I had gotten on average ~2 Mbps down and as high as 8-9 Mbps in some areas.

    If you bring your own phone that is GSM capable, you can use both phones that are AT&T or T-Mobile compatible. If you choose a phone that is T-Mobile compatible, you can request a T-Mo SIM. If you choose a phone uses AT&T bands, you can request the AT&T compatible SIM. You can even bring an iPhone on their network and can request the mini-SIM as well. I have also heard they treat the T-Mo phones differently as well, allowing them to use more data since T-Mo's data is unlimited, but throttled after 2GB. Although I don't know for sure since I'm not using the T-Mo SIM.

    Straight Talk's website is straighttalk.com btw.