by Aaron Conor

Created on: January 13, 2010

Buying a cell phone usually consists of purchasing a plan or a contract with such and such network. Or so it was in the past. These days you can simply purchase an unlocked phone, which then gives you the power to choose whatever network you want. And the best part? You can also pick whatever type of plan that you desire. So begins the era of unlocked phones.

Describing Unlocked Phones

So what are unlocked phones really? Basically, unlocked phones do what was said in the above paragraph. They allow you to pick your own network. So if AT&T does something that ticks you off, then you can switch to someone else. The only other requirement for this is that the network you choose needs to be able to use sim card technology. And the sim card should also be unlocked. AT&T and T-Mobile are two examples of carriers that use sim cards; however, some companies like Verizon and Cricket use something else called CDMA (code division multiple access) technology.

Your unlocked phone may be more difficult or impossible to use on networks like Verizon or Cricket due to this CDMA technology. Though, you could potentially ask them to simply use your phone on their network. They might be able to oblige you by installing the necessary resources on your phone. But this could potentially lock you in with that company, which means you would probably have to buy a new phone if you wanted to leave them. But if you are using unlocked sim cards, you can simply swap them out of the cell phone when you want a new cell phone carrier. No hassles or anything. You can even use prepaid sim cards on unlocked phones.

So you can say goodbye to contracts, and those annoying late fees. And yes, this is legal. Though, some companies would probably love for it to be illegal. Even Apple, wanted it to be illegal to “jailbreak” the iPhone. And by jailbreak, I'm referring to the ability to transform a locked cell phone into an unlocked state.

But to be fair, the iPhone was a bit of a different case simply because Apple did not care about unlocked phones in general; they just wanted to end the ability of people to jailbreak the iPhone. But this could have had a domino effect, and lead to more problems down the road for unlocked phones. More than likely though, unlocked phones are here to stay.

Cell Phone Frequency Bands

One other important aspect to owning an unlocked phone is to understand frequency bands. There are many different types of frequency bands like GSM, 3G, and now 4G (probably

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