Do you unlock your phone(s) ?

[power strike 198]

so does anyone use there phone to unlock it for any reason ?

 

ps. my galaxy s5 is a at&t phone and want my mom to use it becouse it will get better coverage so for my understanding would it be possible to unlock it to use it on t-mobile ? has to be a different sim card of course lol

[Venomous 18,813]

I don't understand the question.

The way you're wording this doesn't make sense...

[Kiri 7,277]

To clarify, are you saying you want to deactivate your phone and then have it reactivated under your mom's account for her use? 

[DeadAccount 4,603]

I am confused what is being asked here. Can you please specify the question? '~'

Edited August 2, 2015 by TwilightAqua

[Sunwalker 981]

If I understood it well, unlocking the phone is removing the carrier lock so you can use it with the SIM card of other carriers.

 

If it is that, the phones I buy are already unlocked. I get a model that is 1 or 2 years old, which isn't that different from a this year's model, but it is much cheaper

[Kyoshi Frost Wolf 40,207]

Meh, I would rather not potentially mess up the phone in any way, so I keep it as it is. If that's what you mean.

[PROJECT: Simon 3,953]

I don't trust anyone in my family, I always *unlock* my phone to use it. 

[Starlighty 790]

I don't get this question? Lol i always lock my phone and unlock it to use it..

[skbl17 199]

When I hear the term "unlocking", I usually think of three things:

 

- Unlocking your phone for use on international and domestic GSM networks. This usually entails removing a carrier-installed "SIM lock", which locks your phone to the network of that carrier. While there have been "unlocking services" in the past that would remove the SIM lock for a fee, it has since been mandated by the FCC that carriers have procedures in place to allow customers to unlock their phones for use on other networks. Procedures will vary by carrier.

 

On Verizon Wireless (the carrier I currently use,) all phones are sold unlocked as of 2013, so I do not need to unlock my phones. I can use my phone on any GSM network in North America, Asia, Europe, Africa, and South America, but I'll only get 3G speeds because the 4G LTE bands Verizon uses do not match up with those of AT&T, T-Mobile, and other LTE operators around the globe.

 

- "Rooting" your phone, which allows you to access system files and load custom ROMs. I do this for every phone I own, no exceptions. The tricky part is in unlocking the bootloader; more and more manufacturers and carriers have started locking bootloaders to prevent hackers and developers from digging too deep and modifying most of the phone's software.

 

- "Jailbreaking" an iOS device, which has been subject to its own legal gray area (the Library of Congress technically defines jailbreaking as illegal, but I don't see people being prosecuted for that). Jailbreaking is essentially the iOS version of "rooting", and it also allows access to app stores filled with alternative apps. When I owned an iPod Touch, I would jailbreak my phone every time a new version of iOS came out (and the requisite hacks were available, of course).