My Motorola flip-phone was purchased in… 2004? 2005? Suffice it to say that it’s not as useful as I’d like it to be, so I’ve been thinking of getting an iPhone.
I seldom use my mobile phone. My sister calls me on it every couple/few months (apparently she lost my landline number), and my SO calls occasionally on my drive home. I rarely make calls myself, though I talked for over an hour with my best fiend yesterday. I pay under $50/month for 450 rollover minutes, no text messaging, no data. (I think almost $20 of that is ‘fees and taxes’.) I’ve no idea how many rollover minutes I’ve accumulated. Certainly many more than I need. In looking at the AT&T plans, I see that I can get 450 rollover minutes and 3GB data for about $70/month with taxes and fees. Text messaging costs 20¢ each, but there’s no way I’ll use it 100 times a month so I won’t pay $20 for unlimited texting. What I want is the data.
So here’s the question: Locked, or unlocked? Unlocked means I can take my phone anywhere in the world, and use it by buying a local SIM card. OTOH an unlocked phone doesn’t come with any SIM card, and I haven’t traveled outside of the country (except Canada) in many, many years. Also, an unlocked phone costs 5-1/2 times what one would cost if I locked into a two-year contract. I’ve been happy with AT&T. I could barely use my phone at home when I bought it, but coverage has improved greatly since then and I can use it anywhere I go now. Still, I like the idea of not being locked into a contract – even if I have no intention of changing carriers. It’s nice to have the option.
I’m pretty sure I’ll get a $99 iPhone and an AT&T two-year contract. I don’t need an unlocked phone. But I know next to nothing about unlocked phones. I only know about the SIM cards (to be obtained location-specifically) from what little I’ve read on unlocked phones. Is there any reason, given my stated usage, why I should consider one? Regardless, how about a tutorial on them?
The main reason people I know who have unlocked phones bought unlocked phones is they fell in love with a phone that their carrier didn’t offer. Seeing as AT&T is one of the primary iPhone carriers, I guess that doesn’t apply to you.
If you’re not traveling a lot out of the country, then I’d say get the locked one and save the money. For short trips, you can buy a month of roaming from AT&T for an outrageous price, but still cheaper than buying the unlocked version. Something I’m not clear on though is after the two-year contract, is AT&T obliged to unlock the phone for you? That would make a difference.
AT&T isn’t obligated to unlock any phone, ever. They will do it for most phones out of contract. In practice, if you’re a long time customer and you call and explain that you want it unlocked simply to use local SIM cards while traveling internationally, they will probably unlock your in-contract phone.
The iPhone is a different matter. No unlocking of iPhones by AT&T, period. I don’t know if that’s an Apple thing or an AT&T thing, but they will not unlock your iPhone under any circumstances.
In general, there isn’t much to know about phone locking. If locked, the phone will only establish service with an active SIM card issued by the carrier it’s locked to. If unlocked, it will establish service with any active SIM card. CDMA phones don’t use SIM cards, but the premise is the same. The only real reason to unlock a CDMA phone would be to switch to a different provider for regular domestic use. There’s no international utility in having an unlocked CDMA phone and in most countries, there’s no utility in having any CDMA phone.
Like most security measures, phone locking can be and is defeated. If you want to do things like connect to iTunes and get software and firmware updates, having an unauthorized unlocked iPhone will be a burden, proportionate to your technical skills. If you buy an authorized unlocked (and unsubsidized) iPhone, it will be indistinguishable from the locked version in your day to day use.
So yeah, renew your contract and take the subsidy, but be aware that the early termination fee on an iPhone is pretty hefty. $325 minus $10 for each month you paid for service.
I too seldom use my cell phone. Got tired of the monthly fees. So…
I bought a used iPhone 3G (old and really cheap).
I went into an AT&T store (real, not reseller) and asked to buy a GoPhone SIM with $25 of calls on it. I did not tell them it was for an iPhone.
Went home, popped it in the iPhone and activated it.
Big drawback is no data but Wifi works for me.
In the last year I have spent $100 on my cell phone.
I recently unlocked my T-Mobile Android phone; all I had to do was ask them. In Chicago, I get great 4G speeds on it. Right now I’m on travel in Panama. Picked up a local SIM card and a week’s worth of voice and data for under ten bucks. It works great, but only at 2G speed for data. Better than nothing, I guess, and worth the ten bucks. But kind of tough after those great 4G data speeds at home.