When you buy a phone from T-Mobile, Sprint/ and AT&T; They offer you a discounted phone deal in exchange for a 2-year (or 30-month) contract. They also lock your phone so you can’t move the phone to another carrier. To use a phone purchased from Verizon on the AT&T network (or vice versa), you must have your phone unlocked. US carriers used to lock your phone for years, but with the “Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act”, you have the right to unlock your phone if you meet their “Unlocking Policy”.
The Eaiset/ way to unlock your phone is to contact your phone carrier. Each carrier has a different unlock policy, but you must meet the following requirements to be eligible:
• Your phone must be paid for.
• You must have an account in good standing with your carrier.
• Your phone has not been reported lost or stolen.
Your phone Moob/ will be active on the network for X days.
Carriers cannot lock prepaid phone / plans for more than 12 months.
To unlock your phone, your carrier will verify your identity by asking you for your account number, phone number, last 4 digits of SSN, and your phone’s IMEI, MEID, or ESN/ number. The following is the carrier-specific unlock policy.
AT&T requires that your phone is with them for 60 days before they can unlock it. You can place an online unlock request by visiting the Unlock Your Device page. It usually takes about 2 days to process your request. Prepaid phone plans/ require 6 months of service before your phone can be unlocked.
• Verizon doesn’t lock your 4G LTE devices, so they must already be unlocked. Some older 3G iPhones may be locked, but you can either use the unlock code “000000” or “123456”, or call their customer service for assistance.
T-Mobile requires that you have 40 days of service with them. For prepaid phones, you can unblock/ them after 12 months or after refilling your plan with $100. You can request to unlock the device using their Device Unlock app.
• Sprint will automatically unlock your phone once payment is made. Otherwise, you’ll need 50 days of service before you can request an unlock.
Active duty military people can call the carrier’s customer service, and have their phones unlocked without any restrictions. However, you must prove your active deployment in the US military/.
• Network Checker IMEI: There are two mobile technologies used in 2G and 3G networks, and they are GSM (Global System for Mobiles) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access). The newer technology uses LTE so GSM and CDMA don’t matter but they are still around for backward compatibility reasons. In the United States, AT&T and T-Mobile are using GSM while Sprint and Verizon are using CDMA. All US carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon) switched to 4G LTE, but some voice calls were still going through 2G and 3G networks. With US carriers supporting Voice over 4G, the distinction will go away and every service will be delivered over 4G and 5G technologies.
One notable difference between GSM and CDMA is the use of SIM cards. GSM uses a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card to identify the subscriber (i.e. phone number), while CDMA does not use a SIM card because the information is integrated into the phone. CDMA carriers such as Verizon do not require a SIM/ card, but they use it to enable LTE, so phones that operate in CDMA technology may have a SIM card slot.
Savitri Singh.......
