How To: Unlock Your Smartphone on Any U.S. Carrier for Free
A landmark bill finally went into action this week that will allow American cellular customers to unlock their smartphones for free. The process of unlocking may vary between mobile service providers, but you can rest assured that you are now entitled, by law, to carrier-unlock your smartphone.Carriers had until February 10, 2015 to bring their policies into compliance with this bill, so from that day forth, ridiculous unlocking fees are a thing of the past, bringing the U.S. in line with policies that have long since been in place throughout most of the world.Some eligibility requirements apply, of course, but I'll outline the process of carrier-unlocking a mobile device in more detail below.
What Is Carrier Unlocking?Phones that are purchased from a particular carrier are, for the most part, "locked" to that carrier's mobile network. This means that even if you had a SIM card from another carrier, it simply wouldn't work in your device.Let's say you are travelling abroad. You can purchase a prepaid SIM card at the airport when you land at your destination, but will it work in your phone? The short answer is no—unless, of course, you've carrier-unlocked your device. If this was the case, your phone is no longer restricted to its original network, and is now free to operate on any carrier you choose.
Am I Eligible to Unlock My Device?In the U.S., the cost of smartphones is generally subsidized as a part of your mobile service contract. This is how you can get an $800 iPhone for only $200 up front—the $600 loss your carrier takes when they make this deal is more than made up for with artificially inflated monthly service charges.But, there's a big drawback to this system. Technically speaking, you do not own your smartphone in this scenario until you've completed your service contract. This means that until you've paid the 24th monthly bill in a 2-year service agreement, the phone still belongs to your carrier.People who fall into this scenario are not eligible to take advantage of this new law. You can only carrier-unlock your phone for free if you meet the following requirements:You purchased the phone outright; or You have completed any associated service contract; and Are still a customer with the original service provider That last requirement is a bit tricky. Your carrier is only required to unlock your phone for free if you are still their customer.If it's an old phone that you purchased from AT&T, for instance, and now you're with Verizon Wireless; AT&T can charge you a "minimal fee" for unlocking the device. However, if you are still a customer with the device's original service provider, they are obligated to unlock your device free of charge upon request.
Okay, I'm Eligible. How Do I Unlock My Phone?The easiest way to unlock your eligible device for free would be to give your carrier a call. I've just done it with AT&T, and it was quick and painless. You'll need to do this because your carrier can provide you with your device's Master Subsidy Lock, also known as MSL. With that number in-hand, you can go about unlocking your device.In the future (meaning phones manufactured from February 2015 onward), MSL will be replaced with the DSU (Domestic SIM Unlockable) system, allowing carriers to unlock devices over the air.For carrier-specific unlocking policies, please see the following links:AT&T Device Unlock Page T-Mobile Unlock Page Sprint Unlock Page Verizon Unlock Page U.S. Cellular Unlock Page You should also be aware of your device's connectivity capabilities. Most phones from Sprint and Verizon operate on CDMA networks, which are not compatible with the global standard of GSM. This means that a Sprint or Verizon phone will probably not work on any other carrier in the world even if it's unlocked.If you'd like to know what carrier networks your phone supports, have a look at this guide from Andrew. This will serve as an easy way to know if your unlocked cell phone will work on a different network.How easy was the process of unlocking your phone with your particular carrier? Let us know in the comments section below, or drop us a line on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter.
Google's new Pixel 3 and 3XL smartphones are packed with new AI camera features, including one called Night Sight that lets you shoot natural-looking photos without a flash in near darkness. The
Night Sight makes excellent camera on new Google Pixel even
For example, if the initial test displayed a discharge rate of -200 mA, add 200 mA to the measurement you receive for your charger and compare the total to your charger's listed output. Fluctuation of ~100 mA is to be expected, but anything past that could mean you have a faulty charger or cable.
How to Find if your Mobile Charger is Faulty or Slow
TapeACall Lets You Record Phone Conversations on Your iPhone
How to Jailbreak Your iPhone 3G/iPod touch 2G and Enable Multitasking, Home Screen Wallpapers, and More for iOS 4 Launch redsn0w and point it toward the iOS 4 image .
How to Get Multitasking & Homescreen Wallpapers on iPod Touch
Now that you know how you can use Xcode 8 to sideload iOS apps on your non-jailbroken iPhone, or iPad running iOS 10, you should go ahead and look for your favourite apps' source code online. As always, if you face any issues with this method, do let us know in the comments section below.
How To: Sideload & Install Open Source iOS Apps on Your
How To: Access Your Favorite Apps Right from Your Android's Pull-Down Menu How To: Get "Anywhere" Gesture Support, Themes, Call Counts, & More with Blinq for Android How To: Close All Open Apps on Your Mac with a Single Click How To: Make App Icons the Same Size & Shape on Android
Bluetooth is a new cell phone accessories technology making your cell phone easier to use than ever. Browse our broad selection of Palm Centro bluetooth headsets, Palm Centro bluetooth car kits and more. Get the most from your cell phone with bluetooth technology with new, guaranteed authentic bluetooth headsets and car kits.
Palm Centro review: Palm Centro - CNET
Here's how to do a restart your iPhone XR if it's frozen or unresponsive. A restart / soft reset can resolve issues like continuous resetting/rebooting, device crashing, freezing, won't ring or vibrate, can't make or receive calls, device locks up, and keypad doesn't respond.
My iPhone Is Frozen! What To Do When Your iPhone Freezes.
How to speed up the Galaxy S6 Edge for faster performance find the individual app of which they'll take a toll on your Galaxy's performance. Chat apps and media player apps have a
How to make Samsung Galaxy J5 that's running slow run faster
Thankfully, if you've been hit by a nasty piece of malware, you can learn how to find out if you've been hacked. These sites can tell you everything you need to know about your online security and
Find out if your password has been hacked - CNET
Coinbase 101: Fees & Fine Print You Need to Know Before Trading Bitcoins & Other Cryptocurrencies How To: Stop Panic Selling & Impulse Buys by Hoarding Your Cryptocurrency in Coinbase's Vaults How To: Binance Trading Pairs Help You Keep Track of Your Favorite Coins' Values
The Complete Beginner's Guide to Binance Review 2019 - Is it
If you have an HTC Smartphone and you want to back up the device's contents, you need to install the phone's PC software to synchronize your device with your computer. Download HTC Sync Manager and install it. This version supports the following devices: HTC X2, HTC One X10, HTC U Play, HTC U Ultra, HTC U11; HTC U11 life, HTC U11+, HTC U11
How to backup your Mac - Your shortcut to get the best apps
How to Tether a Samsung Galaxy Tab to a rooted Motorola Droid
Just make a second battery and connect the zinc or steel piece of one battery with the copper wire of the other battery using another piece of copper wire to act as a bridge. You can use your enlarged lemon battery to power a low-power device like a digital watch or calculator. Remove the regular battery from the digital watch or calculator.
How to make lemon battery - It's Fun and Easy! - YouTube
iMessage, Facebook, WhatsApp, Viber. Instant messenger services are an alternative to regular texts. With SpyFone remote cell phone monitoring, you can easily monitor these messages in real time. No need to be a tech savvy, Guaranteed!
The 100 Best Android Apps for 2019 | PCMag.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment