My daughters cell phone is going on the blink which wenhave anpost paid plan with. We aren't wanting to lock into a 3 year contract with Bell Mobility with the iPhones they sells(our only carrier here). I'm a bit clueless about what unlocking is. Can we buy an unlocked iPhone (eBay,etc.) and somehow use it on a post paid plan with Bell Mobility?
I believe you can buy an "Unlocked" phone directly from Apple.
It will not be assigned to any particular carrier. When you choose a carrier you will purchase one of their SIM Cards to put into your phone to make it active on the carriers network.
I believe you can buy an "Unlocked" phone directly from Apple.
Keep in mind that if you do buy from Apple, you pay full retail for the phone. A base model 16 GB iPhone 4S is $649 right now. I have an unlocked iPhone 4 32 GB I bought direct from Apple at over $900 with Applecare.
There is no discount available as there is when you buy a locked Bell iPhone likely worth only $200 or so with a three year contract. Since you don't want a locked phone or a contract, your only option is to look for a used unlocked iPhone and they still sell for a pretty high price.
While jail breaking does unlock an iPhone, as I understand it, it's a pain in the rear to update as you are at the mercy of the unlock program to update the iOS when changes are made.
The locked version from Bell or the unlocked version from Apple would accept those upgrades problem free. It was more than I wanted to mess with in my case and I chose to pay the premium to Apple for the unlocked phone.
Any "unlocked" phone selling for $250 isn't genuinely carrier-unlocked and thus will not remain unlocked if you upgrade iOS. The unlock will have to be re-done (if possible, and so far in iOS 5 it hasn't been possible) after each iOS upgrade.
The good news is that the 3GS is likely at or very near the end of its upgradability.
No point in buying an unlocked phone just to sign up with bell, unless you travel a lot, and plan to use different sim cards from different providers.
Let me explain what unlocking is. When a phone is unlocked, it allows you to use it with any provider (bell, rogers, fido, telus, etc..) given that phone is compatible on their network.
From your description, i would say all you need is a used locked bell iphone. Locked just means you can only use it with bell. You don't need to sign a contract if you already have a locked phone. You may have to pay an activation fee though. Its only a one time fee. If i recall correctly, its a $35 fee.
Just be aware that if you do buy a locked phone, it has to be locked to the provider you decide to go with. For example, you can't use a locked rogers iphone on the bell network. For rogers, you would need a rogers locked phone.
As someone already mentioned, most iphones on the used market that claim to be unlocked are only software unlocked. Which means if you ever upgrade the software, you phone goes back to being locked, unless you there's new unlocking software, and you know how to do the upgrade.
I say stick with a used locked bell phone, since you are going with bell anyways.
Any "unlocked" phone selling for $250 isn't genuinely carrier-unlocked and thus will not remain unlocked if you upgrade iOS. The unlock will have to be re-done (if possible, and so far in iOS 5 it hasn't been possible) after each iOS upgrade.
This is inaccurate. Just confirm the iPhone is *factory* unlocked. In the last month off of local Craigslist I have bought a factory unlocked iPhone 3G for $150 and a factory unlocked 3GS for $260.
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