What is the advantage of getting an unlocked cellphone?
Wireless carriers typically subsidize the cost of a new mobile phone by requiring you to sign a two-year contract for service on their networks â€" in effect, “locking†the phone to the network. This subsidy can lower the price of a new smartphone to about $200 from around $600, but it basically means you cannot legally use the phone with any other company's network without permission from your carrier.
Modifications earlier this year to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act actually made unlocking your phone without your carrier's permission illegal. A Congressional bill, the Unlocking Technology Act of 2013, was recently introduced to change the current law.
You can still buy an unlocked phone outright, though, and one big advantage to doing so is that you can use it freely on other carrier networks - especially if you buy a handset that works on the G.S.M. networks used around the world. Traveling with an unlocked G.S.M. phone means you can buy local inexpensive service plans, and S.I.M. cards, in the countries you visit and not worry about exorbitant roaming charges from a company back home.
