An unlocked smartphone can mean one of two things; it can be used with any network provider or you are able to setup any app on it. With the price of current smartphones climbing to a few hundred dollars, phone producers and the network providers have to present some attractive programs to get folks to upgrade their phone. The most widespread way is to offer the smartphone completely free or at a serious discount and in return you sign up for a contract where you agree to pay a minimum amount of money every month. The bitter side of this deal is that while you get the latest phone worth several hundred dollars, it's locked to the service provider you took the contract with. As a result, if you want to switch providers or change to a pay as you go plan when the plan expires you'll have a difficult time taking your smartphone with you.

The easiest approach to finding out if the smartphone is locked to a network carrier is to insert a sim card from a different provider and see if you get a signal and can make and receive calls. If you cannot most likely you have a locked device. The 'lock' isn't a physical lock but a program hidden in the operating system? This software checks that the network service provider is valid and stops any attempt to connect to a different service provider.

It is possible, although somewhat dangerous, to unlock a phone either by entering a sequence of numbers from your keypad or connecting it up with a laptop or computer which has some software to erase or reprogram the core operating system. You'll not come across any retailers offering this service but certainly small, independently owned cell phone suppliers might offer this service for a small fee if you request. Having said that, be warned that when you do decide to unlock your device for use on another carrier it likely nulls the warranty. There's always the chance it may erase the system memory completely and then you'll have a block of plastic about as effective as a brick.

One reason why you might like to get the device unlocked, and 1 of the driving motives many look to do so is when you're travelling in another country for any duration you want to maintain your smartphone but utilize a local sim card to save on expenditures on calls, messages and data transfer. A locked smartphone is not going to offer the freedom to do this so the sole alternative is to get the phone unlocked.

The other variety of locking is the restrictions applied by the manufacturer. The Apple iPhone is notorious for this since Steve Jobs decided that he does not want individuals fooling with the operating system or setting up unapproved apps. This has given rise to the term 'jailbreaking' for the iPhone. Countless folks attempt to escape and unlock their iPhone by means of jailbreaking it. Bear in mind, this voids the warranty and support.

In contrast, Google's Android cell phones are open source and provides the freedom and flexibility to individualize everything. Coders are free to create and install any sort of application which many argue makes the Android a first-class operating system because there's no need to unlock it, jailbreak it or circumnavigate constraints which were put in place. Regardless, many network providers may lock the unit to their network and you might want unlocking services from a neighborhood cell phone store.