What is the difference between a locked iPhone 4 and an unlocked iPhone 4?

Asked by brettvdb (1192

) October 26th, 2010

I posted last week trying to decide what kind of smart phone to buy. I have no decided after the advice of many fluther users to go with the iPhone 4. I am currently with Bell and my contract will expire soon, so I am planning to stay with them and get the iPhone 4 and a new smart phone plan.

My question is: what does it mean that bell has locked the iPhone4? What kind of functionality was removed when they did this? Will there be applications and features on the phone that I will not be able to use unless I pay? My last phone had programs installed on it that I could not use unless I paid a monthly fee – totally ridiculous. Does anyone have the iPhone 4 who can speak to its functionality?

Would it be possible to buy an unlocked iPhone 4 and then use it with a Bell service plan?

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2 Answers

Locked means that you cannot use the phone with any cell service provider other than the one the device is locked to, in your case Bell.

In order to unlock the phone you will most likely have to pay a fee to unlock.

The benefit of an unlocked phone is that you have flexibility in providers if you are unhappy with your service, or you travel to other countries and don’t want to pay extortionate roaming charges. The downside of an unlocked phone is you have to pay the full cost for the device upfront, which for the iPhone is quite a bit of cash!

An unlocked phone will work on Bell, but you may not get the same value with your minutes/credit/data etc.

Functionality will not be overly different between the locked and unlocked phone. Features such as tethering and MMS could be unavailable on Bell phones, you’ll have to check with a sales rep.

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