Why an unlocked phone is a good investment in the long run

[***JP***]

As we all know people everywhere these days rely on their cellphones. One major fact is that in the US people are used to having their cellphones subsidized by the carriers and most people would never consider buying their phones full price. Yes it's true subsidized cellphones are convenient at times but locks you in a 2 year contract since most carriers in the US have dropped the 1 year contract deals to be able to hang on to people for longer. If you are with a CDMA carrier you are pretty much out of luck in that department since CDMA is pretty much on very few countries. GSM being the world standard is easier for anyone who travels abroad a lot since the phone depends on a SIM card to work. US GSM carriers lock down their phones so people don't jump ship to another GSM carrier. 1 of the 2 major US carriers that uses GSM will email you an unlock phone after you are at least 3 months with them and haven't defaulted on your bill. Sadly these days the GSM carriers sell you a smartphone with what smartphone geeks like to call it Bloatware aka Crapware from the carrier that you can't remove so even if you SIM unlock your phone you are still stuck with the carriers Bloatware. Now here's the point on where I'm getting at. Sure people say buying an unlocked phone at full price is crazy and that is because we are used to buying our mobile phones subsidized. But there is a benefit on paying that full price for a factory unlocked phone wether it is a flip phone, smartphone or different platforms like iOS, Android, BB os, etc. If you travel abroad chances are that if you didn't unlock your phone, your unit is not gonna work when you pop in a local SIM card from the country you are going to.



When you buy a factory unlocked phone the carrier doesn't control you, doesn't but their Bloatware in them and at the same time the carriers don't control you. In the case of the smartphone, factory unlocked smartphones always get first dibs on software updates. The reason why they get first dibs on software updates, because carriers don't control the update process and of course here's the major benefit. You can put in a SIM card from the country you are visiting without having to put in a code for your phone to accept the SIM card from the country you visit. This is one benefit a lot of people around Europe and Asia are enjoying. In Europe most carriers sell you a unit that is already factory unlocked and in Asia they do the same. So you see. If you are not satisfied with the carriers service you can always put in a SIM card from another carrier.


Another true benefit, you will not pay roaming fees. Data roaming in Europe can cost you up to 10 dollars a MB so imagine how much it would add up when you start uploading photos to Facebook or any other social networking site or even online photo albums. So you see guys? Sometimes paying the full price for an unlocked phone can be beneficial to you when you travel abroad in the sense that you don't need to put in no special code so the phone you have from your carrier will accept the SIM card from another country. You just put in the SIM card from that country and you keep walking. I hope this helps the guys who are thinking of traveling abroad and want to take their cellphones with them.

[ryanx]

Have you ever heard of breaking up your text into paragraphs to make it easier to read?