Over in Europe, things work a little differently. The carrier model still dominates, but it’s just as easy to pick up unlocked, unbranded versions of Android phones big and small that work on just about any local operator (and often many not-so-local ones.)
Nice overview of the situation in Europe, but to be honest, I haven’t seen any carrier-specific models in The Netherlands in years. In fact, at least on my carrier, you can unlock your phone the moment you get it (a low fee may be charged), and after 12 months, the unlock process is always free (at least for T-Mobile – I’m guessing the same applies to the other two carriers).
You can buy unlocked phones from major stores – both online and offline – everywhere, and nobody bats an eye. In fact, in the first quarter of 2014, almost half of all ‘mobile connections’ were SIM-only – i.e., the mobile phone contract is just the SIM card, without any “free” phone. When you do the maths, clever shopping for a SIM-only contract and an unlocked phone can be hundreds of euros cheaper in the total running time of the contract than going the traditional contract+phone route.
Coincidentally, I’m pretty sure this explains why Android is so popular here. You can get unlocked Android flagship-quality phones or last year’s flagships for a few hundreds euros, whereas unlocked iPhones are two to three times as expensive. When you give consumers an honest breakdown of what a contract+phone really costs, most people will opt to save hundreds of euros.
You haven’t seen any locked phones in years, but then you go and explain how to unlock the phones? Wait, what?
Oops, little error. The ‘carrier-locked’ part was by mistake. Fixed!
Aliexpress : http://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?SearchText=phone
Contrary to the Author’s assumption, the situation is the same in the USA. Unlocked phones are cheap and plentiful, you just have to be sure of your technology, GSM vs. CDMA. I’ve taken my SIM card out of my Verizon (CDMA) iphone, and put it into both a LG G Vista and Galaxy S5. It worked perfectly, no activation or anything.
GSM works the same way. Just get an unlocked phone and swap away.
Modems which limit carriers compatibility is more often a problem. Locking – not so much anymore. At least one easily can buy an unlocked device. Newer LTE modems are universal already, so it’s not going to be a problem going further as well.
Edited 2015-06-24 02:00 UTC
The biggest problem is that in a lot of rural areas Verizon has a monopoly on the frequencies with any useful range, and they use CDMA. It doesn’t matter how unlocked a phone is if only one carrier reaches your house.
Not quite. You do have to make sure your phone supports all of our GSM frequencies if you want to swap between AT&T and T-Mobile. They’re not quite the same, even though the technology is. Any reasonably mid-range phone will be fine, but some of the cheaper ones have radios that are optimized for one frequency set or another for 3G and/or LTE. Standard GPRS and voice GSM will work no matter what, of course, but your data options may be limited depending on your phone.
You’ve obviously never bought an unlocked phone in the US. The reality is not nearly as simple. You do have the GSM vs CDMA problem, but to top it off, each carrier uses a different 3G and 4G band. For 3G, for exmaple, this is what you have:
T-Mobile uses 1700MHz/2100MHz and 1900MHz;
AT&T uses 850MHz and 1900MHz;
Sprint uses 1900MHz only;
Verizon uses 850MHz and 1900MHz.
If you want 4G, the problem is even worst! If you go on Newegg, for example, and search for an unlocked phone, you need to be very careful about the supported Bands. And chances are, the phone you pick, will not have support for more than 1 carrier’s band.
So in reality, if you want to buy a truly unlocked phone in the US (one that will work with any carrier) you simply cannot.
Try a search on Amazon. We have a dozen android test devices that work perfectly well on all carriers. What you describe was a problem years ago but modern chipsets support the majority of frequencies to cover all providers.
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I find that very unlikely! Do you have brands and model numbers on those?
A quick look on Amazon shows that all phones there are either GSM or CDMA, never both (meaning they will definitely not work on all carriers). So right there you have to watch what you buy, because there is no guarantee that just picking a phone at random will yield something that works for you carrier. Additionally, all the ones I came across list either the carriers or frequencies they are compatible with, none of them say “all GSM networks” or “all CDMA networks”.
Just one more point, the 2 CDMA carriers (Sprint and Verizon) do not share any of the same 4G Bands. At least on Amazon, all the unlocked CDMA phones I found were either for Verizon or Sprint, but never both. That doesn’t even account for the fact that even finding an unlocked CDMA phone was very hard. Not all unlocked models have a CDMA variant.
In conclusion, I find your claim that you have dozens of “devices that work perfectly well on all carriers” very hard believe.
My lowly $100 phone supports all of the following:
HSPA+ 21Mbps/ HSUPA 5.76Mbps
EDGE/ GPRS Class 12
Quad band GSM 850/900/1800/1900
Quad band UMTS 850/900/1900/2100
Don’t really know what carriers I can use with that since I haven’t changed carriers. Ever. Been with AT&T (well, Cingular first) since the mid 90s.
Wrong. The Nexus 6, as well as the current generation of unlocked iPhones (bought from Apple as unlocked directly) support everything to name two. It’s more difficult when you get to phones like the Moto X though.
Both Qualcomm and Intel now produce universal LTE modems. So I assume there should be devices which work with all LTE networks.
There are quite a few actually, the best is actually the OnePlus One or even the new upcoming OnePlus Two model. They both have Qualcomm chips and are extremely well outfitted. I’m actually at a loss as to why people buy the iPhone for instance, not only is it outrageously expensive but they only have 1GB of Ram. Before you say well they have good memory management, Try typing up a comment like this, switch to a different app for a moment and when you come back see if Safari hasn’t cleared or refreshed the page you were just on, open up more than 5 tabs and you will also start to see why memory is important. My new Passport has 3GB of Ram and I adore it, my browser never refreshes, even when I have 10 apps opened.
I can purchase the vast majority of phones in the USA, most of which would be unlocked. Admittedly I may not be able to do so at a retail store – except for New York where you can get anything – but I can get virtually any model from an online retailer and have it in 24 hours or less.
Indeed, I would wager you a tidy sum that I can purchase most phones, unlocked, at a price much lower then you can in Europe.
The phones you buy from carriers – on contract – are limited and are locked until the expiration of your contract but this is an option, not a requirement.
I think the point really is, if you want a phone in the USA, you walk into a carrier and talk to them and generally they’ll swindle you into a contract.
You have to be a little bit more street smart to manage getting an unlocked phone in the USA. I personally would have ordered the Jolla phone if it’d worked with T-Mobile’s 4G/LTE whatever the hell it’s called this week. Instead I ended up getting my second Android phone (first one was the Cliq, which I hated with a passion, and sold it and bought a Nokia N900, which I love to this day) which was the Note 3.
When I bought my Note 3, the person at the T-Mobile store actually asked “are you sure that’s the one you want?” wtf?
Hopefully next Jolla will have a proper modem. I’m waiting for one too.
T-Mobile hasn’t even offered contracts for over 2 years now. They seem to be growing fairly quickly as a result, in spite of their limited rural spectrum problem (I live in DFW, thankfully).
I actually don’t remember having a phone contract, but that may say more about my memory than my phones – though it’s been at least since 2009, when I bought my late beloved Nokia N900.
I guess people who want the latest iPhone from Verizon or AT&T may still sign contracts so they can claim “I got mine for $199”, but I suspect those delusional days are numbered.
It’s not just rural coverage T-mobile lacks. A lot of midsized cities that I travel to are left out, so they’re not really a viable option for me.
Here in Finland even if you buy a phone from the carrier on a contract it’s still unlocked on most carriers. As far as I know Telia Sonera locks such phones, but e.g. the carrier I use doesn’t bother with such crap at all; I can whip out the SIM-card to another phone at will or use another SIM-card on my phone, it makes no difference.
Here in the UK, you can buy a phone that is Pay As You Go (no contract) in most supermarkets and that is generally locked to a specific carrier. It’s often cheaper than buying the phone outright. However, if you go to a store like Carphone Warehouse, you can buy the same Pay As You Go deal, but your phone is not locked to the provider. Carphone Warehouse sels generic unlocked phones. So the trick is to buy the phone PAYG, then swap out the SIM card and sell/give away the other SIM. All you generally pay is about £10 extra to add credit to the account at point of sale. I got my Lumia 535 for £89 unlocked, but I could have had it for £79 PAYG – except it was basically same price because of extra £10 top-up. But deals are out there if you play the market correctly.
My carrier O2 will also unlock your phone for pretty much free almost a soon as you purchase it. Only exception used to be iPhone, where they made you wait 3 months after launch date so that people didn’t sell them on after purchase.
This is true because, in the US, if you want to move to a different carrier you MUST buy a new phone. So what they do is lower the price to make you think you’re getting a better deal, but in reality they get to sell you a new phone every time you decide to move. It works well for everyone but the consumer. Your carrier is happy because if you choose to stay with them they get a repeat customer. And the manufacturer is happy because if you do choose to move to a new carrier to get a better price on your contract, you have to purchase a new phone. At the end of the day, you, as the customer/consumer, always pay more in the US.
That doesn’t even touch on the carriers that do not offer “bring your own phone”-style contracts. Because if you do not “buy” that new phone once your 2-year contract has expired, you are still paying for it.
Absolutely not true. I took my Verizon (CDMA) sim card out of my iPhone 5, slipped in a AT&T (GSM) sim card, configured APN and it worked.
It may not be true for _every_ phone, but to say that you _must_ change phones is false.
It’s interesting with iPhones, because some carriers (Sprint for example) use the unlocked model of iPhone even if you buy it from them, where as other carriers have some carrier-specific radios in them. All current iPhones support all GSM (and associated 3g and LTE bands) without trouble, but transitioning from Verizon to Sprint can be interesting where your LTE is concerned, as Verizon’s iPhone does have a slightly different radio in it than the Sprint/global model.
One thing I can say for Apple is that they make it easy to know what your phone will and won’t support. Check your model number, go to the page for your iPhone and hit up the tech specs, and there are all the models along with details of every frequency supported on it. Really though, you only have to check if you’re switching from Verizon to Sprint. You’re home free with iPhones and GSM no matter which way you go for any iPhone starting with the 5, and the model Sprint sells you is the exact same (model number and all) as the global unlocked iPhone.
The fact that I can use my UK SIM in a lot of countries around the world and pay NO roaming charges.
http://www.three.co.uk/Discover/Phones/Feel_At_Home
This model has to be the way of the future IMHO
Plus getting a UK SIM for US visitors is very easy. There are even Vending machines in some terminals at Heathrow Airport where you can pick up a PAYG SIM on the spot.
We can also take our number with us when we move networks. Not sure of the rules elsewhere in Europe or the US.
You can buy SIM cards in every supermarket. They are everywhere. There are a lot of providers (O2, EE, Vodafone, Three) and then a lot of virtual providers (Giff Gaff, Tesco, Asda, Virgin, Lebara.. too many to list.) I bought my daughter a new SIM a while back and it was £0.01 (one penny) and came with about £2.50 worth of credit on it. At that rate, you could buy a tonne of these SIM’s and have almost no charges… just change your number on an hourly basis… probably why no one ever does that.
Looks like ‘Three’ are offering totally free, as-if-you’re-in-the-UK roaming to… well, a pretty short list of countries, really.
Still pretty cool though.
I presume this is because the regulator, ‘Ofcom’, hits them with a stick and forces the telcos to play ball. You’re right though: the system works.
I’ve been doing things this way for years, even in the US. You get a much better price, more reasonable terms, and just better customer service all around (especially if you opt for an MVNO rather than a major carrier directly). This is how it should be. Add to that, I don’t get stuck with any carrier bloatware or lock-outs. We’ve got the options here. Most people just don’t know about them or don’t care to learn.
The GSM carriers will let you get a sim without a phone or contract. They will also offer payment plans on the phones that will add to your monthly bill. Its easy to save money by not buying a phone from them. Many of my friends do it, but I’m not sure how popular that is with the public at large.
America is so behind in mobile it’s actually kind of depressing. Where I live, Switzerland, I haven’t bought a phone on contract in over 10 years. It’s just so much cheaper buying the phone out right, not to mention the ease of which I can sell the phone because it’s not locked to any one provider, locked phones hardly ever sell or if they do it’s because the price is so low, no where near it’s purchasing price.
Because of the ease of which I can sell my phones, I buy a new one about 3 times a year and the kicker is it costs me exactly the same as buying one phone and keeping it for two years. See, when I sell my phones on ricardo.ch, the local equivalent of eBay, I only loose between 100 to 50 bucks from the initial cost of the phone. So 6 phones is around 600 bucks, which is the maximum I will spend. Example; my latest phone only cost 500, which was the Blackberry Passport, the one before that, 420 for a Nokia 930 and the one before that OnePlus One, 350, etc. I guess I just don’t like having a phone longer than 5 months, I don’t know if it’s because I get bored easy or I just like tech, probably a little of both. I also do the same thing with my tablets and notebooks and since everything is backed up to the cloud I don’t miss a beat when switching. Especially notebooks as I now use ChromeBook’s which on a side note, my latest one, the Google Pixel II, I absolutely adore so I might keep it until the new one comes out, first time in a long while that I wanted to keep something longer than 6 months. Anyway, all of these devices are super easy to sell as I always buy what’s popular (Windows phones do better here than the states, before any of you come back with that one), their basically new as I always take extremely good care of them (cases and screen protectors), I always keep the box they come in, never open the accessories, manuals or charger (I mean why, they all use the same micro USB and power input) and finally most of their warranty is left which is usually for two years. So when I put them up for sell I set the starting price to 100 CHF less than what I paid for it and I have never, ever not sold the thing I was trying to sell. The power of unlocked devices.
I’ve converted quite a few people to this system, granted they probably only buy two phones a year instead of the three that I do but one thing is for sure, not a single one has gone back to buying their phones on contract. If you can’t afford it, save, simple as that, instead of buying that 8 dollar Latte from Starbucks, set it aside for a new phone, you will be surprised how fast you can save from packing your lunch. Also no one is saying you have to buy a 800 dollar iPhone, that’s idiotic as they offer nothing more than something like the upcoming OnePlus Two. Which is only 350 bucks and comes with the new Qualcomm 810, 3GB of RAM, 16MP Sony camera, 32GB storage, SD Card Slot, etc. So don’t waste your money on expensive phones as they just aren’t worth it, especially when better spec’d phones are available for half the cost and never, ever buy on contract. In fact I don’t even by contracts for my phones anymore as pre-paid has gotten incredibly good here in Europe, I can surf the Internet unlimited with 10mbps LTE for only 1 CHF a day, a Frank is about the same as dollar. Since I no longer use GSM for anything as everything today is Whatsapp, BBM, Hangouts, I also never pay for calls. So for only 30CHF a month I have everything I need and here is the kicker, I can use multiple sims with the same number, three devices connected to the net for just a buck a day. Again, I feel sorry for Americans and the BS they have to put up with from their mobile providers. In house internet is even worst I heard, I mean I’ve been rocking fiber for the last 2 years.
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