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When a consumer usually obtains a cell phone, most often it will come “locked”, meaning that the phone’s hardware is sure to the service provider from which the phone was purchased, and only that software which they support. Unlocked cell phones can be purchased from various outlets, however unless one already knows the advantages of unlocked cell phones and expects to by one, actively seeking it out, a consumer is unlikely to find one. There are a number of advantages to unlocking one’s cell phone.

Chief among them is expense. Among the various major service providers, a purchaser hasn’t much in the way of choices when it comes to the prices. Generally speaking, their only option is to go by whatever cost the service provider has set for them, forcing them to, in choosing a service provider, decide between the lesser of evils, as it were. However, unlocking a cell phone allows a user to use it with whichever service provider they choose. This seems circularly illogical until you consider that service providers and cost will alter drastically in different locations, and particularly in countries.

Utilizing unlocked cell phones, a user can select whichever service provider – often local – gives them the best coverage or deal for wherever they happen to be, and also enables them to stay away from expensive roaming charges. Another financially related factor is resale price, which drastically increases with unlocked cell phones when you aren’t also attempting to sell a second-hand ball and chain. Reselling an unlocked cell phone presents the same advantages you had once taken advantage of to your customer, warranting a bigger price tag – sometimes up to 300% bigger!

Unlocking your cell phone also permits you to use multiple SIM cards at once, generally making a single unit function like two phones, with two separate configurations of settings and preferences. Practical applications would be using separate SIM cards for work and leisure, or for use among domestic and foreign locations. Dual SIM card adaptability is common in most present day phones and is a very straightforward process to take advantage of.

A well-liked cause for unlocking one’s cell phone is one of principle. People simply don’t like being bound by contract to a major service provider and prefer not to be tethered to contractual obligations citing fine print in the contract bleeding their bank account through hidden fees and cancelling fees. It’s your cell phone, you paid money for it, you should be able to use it as you see fit. That’s the common approval for it, and reasonably so, as the core function of a service provider contract is to keep you bound to that company, paying monthly bills that in less than a year will far exceed the amount of money you originally spent on the unit.