/wsr/ - Worksafe Requests » Thread #175175

[5 / 1 / ?]

39KiB, 374x347, 8941234746574645665332.jpg

Anonymous Thu 18 Aug 2016 05:10:38 No.175175 View View Reply Original Report

Quoted By: >>175210

I'm going to buy my first ever phone. I'm a late bloomer with this so I have no idea how it works. I'm going to be picking one out on eBay for cheap because it's all I can afford.

May someone please help me understand how network locking works? If I get it, will I have to get AT&T, the provider it's locked to, or can I pick a different provider once I decide to go with a plan? For the moment, until I get a steady income, I won't be on a plan. I just want to use it with WiFi for now. Will network locking prevent that also?

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 18 Aug 2016 05:17:54 No.175180 Report

Quoted By:

Pretty sure it should work with wifi as far as internet things, but you won't be able to text/call unless you get an app and there's an app for everything...
Also, you should look into Ting. A pay as you go provider.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 18 Aug 2016 05:37:47 No.175189 Report

Quoted By:

if you don't plan on using it much, pageplus service for a year is only $30, phones from around $20

ringplus is free if you have an eligible phone (with is complicated now thanks to the fcc), there was just a promo for 3500 mins/text/data

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 18 Aug 2016 07:40:57 No.175210 Report

Quoted By:

>>175175
>AT&T
You're American, then.

Congratulations on living in the country with the most fucked-up telecom system in the world.

See, there are two mobile phone standards: GSM, a standard throughout the entire world, including the USA, and CDMA, which doesn't work outside the USA, and was basically invented because the USA felt sad it only had one type of mobile phone.

GSM has "SIM cards", tiny electronic chips that represent your contract, and handle all the GSM encryption keys off the phone. To change your contract to another phone, you pop out the SIM and put it in the new phone.

CDMA doesn't have SIM cards, so if you want to change phone or operator or contract, you need to phone the company that really owns your phone, and ask them to do it.

CDMA phones are kinda locked-by-default, because there's no SIM to swap, and if the operator says no, there's not a lot you can do.

GSM locking, if you put in a different brand of SIM, the phone says no. How you get the lock taken out depends on your phone and company. For instance in Europe (thanks to Brussels), you just phone them up and pay $15, and they have to unlock your phone. In the USA, it's often completely impossible.

GSM phones can't be moved to CDMA, and vice versa. It's like VHS and Betamax. If you have a betamax phone, resign yourself to only being able to use it with the operator you got it from, in the USA.

A phone with no plan has no phone number, and can't really do anything phoney. At the very least get a PAYG plan with data if you're planning on getting a smartphone, as without a plan basically nothing works: no messaging, no maps, no GPS, no calls.

If you just want a smartphoney thing that's never going to leave the house and only ever be on wifi, get an iPod Touch.

Anonymous

Anonymous Thu 18 Aug 2016 16:58:31 No.175377 Report

Quoted By:

what kinda budget you got

Capcode	All Only User Posts Only Verified Posts Only Moderator Posts Only Manager Posts Only Admin Posts Only Developer Posts Only Founder Posts
Show Posts	All Only With Images Only Without Images Only Spoiler Images Only Non-Spoiler Images
Deleted Posts	All Only Deleted Posts Only Non-Deleted Posts
Ghost Posts	All Only Ghost Posts Only Non-Ghost Posts
Post Type	All Only Sticky Threads Only Opening Posts Only Reply Posts
Results	All Grouped By Threads
Order	Latest Posts First Oldest Posts First

On these archives

Your latest searches