Unlocked Mobile Phones

Unlocking your mobile phone is quite easy if you know what to do and can be achieved through different methods, each at a different price point. Each method also has a degree of difficulty and risk to them. If you choose to go with a method besides contacting your mobile phone carrier, you could risk damaging your phone or rendering it inoperable. Also, when you go with other methods that use third party software or hardware, you also risk being scammed.

One of the easiest ways for unlocking a cell phone is by calling your carrier and asking them to unlock it for you. Assuming you are using a phone using GSM cell phone technology (ie it uses a SIM card), you can have it unlocked. Carriers like T-Mobile or AT&T will let you call them after a set period of time during your contract to request a phone unlock. Some carriers (T-Mobile) will let you do this for free after 90 days, and other carriers may charge you a nominal fee for the unlocking. All you have to do when having your phone unlocked in this manner is to call your carrier’s customer service and request it. If they ask you why you want to unlock your phone, tell them (no matter what the reason is), you need the phone unlocked because you’re going to be traveling overseas.  This excuse is completely legitimate and you’ll never have to worry about your cell phone company denying your request.

The second easiest (but also the most expensive) way for unlocking mobile phones is through going to a local business to have them unlock your phone for you.  While this method can be a little costly, you don’t have to worry about causing damage to your phone.  Professional people who unlock phones every day have the equipment and software necessary to get the task done.  Plus, if you’re dealing with a reputable company, they should have a risk-free policy where if you phone is damaged for their service they will replace it for you.

The final method for unlocking cell phones is buying the software or 3rd party hardware and doing it yourself.  You can buy the stuff you need to unlock your phone on quite a few websites as well as on auction sites like eBay.  How the software works that you can buy is it requests some of the identification codes found on the phone and then generates the unlock code based on those numbers.  Assuming you buy high quality software, you can get you mobile phone unlocked fast and easy.  While this method is cheaper than paying some else to unlock your mobile phone for you, the risk is much higher!  If you fail to follow instructions correctly or if you buy shoddy software or hardware, you can seriously break your phone.  So, unless you know somewhat what you’re doing, I’d try the first or second method listed first.