8390

[Tyler_Priddis]

I was just wondering what unlocking my phone will really do. Will I get charged more from my provider or could someone just explain to me what benifits it gives you and what is the downside of this. thanks

-Tyler Priddis

[Thanh]

Hello there :)

To understand what benefits you have of an unlocked phone, i think you first need to know what a "locked" phone is :)

Your 8390 is a single-band GSM 1900 phone. That already does not leave much choices when it comes to "available networks" since there are not much using that frequency.

However, there can be two kinds of "locks" in your phone.

One is a "SIM-lock". Find out what your phone does when you put in an other than your SIM card. If it comes up with "Sim card not accepted", you have a SIM-locked phone. That means that you may use it only with your one SIM-card which you got in there now.

If it accepts another SIM of the same provider (!), in that case you have a "Operator-locked" phone and may use a different SIM, but only as long it is from the same company, such as t-mobile or whichever it is.

In either case, if you travel abroad, you need to stick with that SIM card (or provider) you use now, and you may not buy a cheap pre-paid SIM in the country you go, to save on roaming costs. But anyway, remember yours is a single band 1900, you will not have many choices in any other country! We have a 1900er network here, but it covers only central Bangkok.

When you unlock the phone, it simply removes either lock and makes your phone "free" to be used with any SIM card, on any network (provided it is a GSM 1900!). If you got a SIM lock, unlocking may allow you to get another SIM (new number, cheaper plan) from that same provider at any time and keep using that phone.

Does it make sense..? Well, in the case of a single band 1900er phone... not really, since there are not much networks you may chose from... and as long as you want to change providers, you don't need to bother.......... unlocking does NOT give you any new features :)

Kind regards...
Thanh