The new iPhone 15
metteg's profile

Contributor

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2 Messages

Friday, September 30th, 2016 9:53 PM

Does unlocking my phone through AT&T mean the same thing as "factory unlocking"

I am trying to sell my old 5s after upgrading. I followed the instructions for unlocking a phone on at&t website, but I just want to make sure I understand. That means that my phone is unlocked right? So I can sell it as "Factory unlocked" and people can use it on a different network?

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ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

Not exactly.  Many phones are sold "factory unlocked"   This means they were never locked to a carrier.  Since your was, it would be "carrier unlocked ".  

An AT&T unlocked phone will work on an GSM carrier (not Verizon or Sprint). And will sell for a bit more on eBay. 

 

 

ACE - Professor

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2.2K Messages

7 years ago

No, it does not mean the same thing.  A factory unlocked phone is a phone that comes unlocked from the manufacturer and should be able to be used on all carriers.  As your phone had to be unlocked by AT&T, then it must have been carrier locked to AT&T.   Your phone is now carrier unlocked and can be used on another network. 

 

ACE - Expert

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16.5K Messages

7 years ago

@Lilybell2 @lizdance40

Is the end result the same thing?  

Or are there differences in the way things work later?

 

(Let's stay in the iPhone realm for the answers)

Contributor

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2 Messages

7 years ago

Thank you! That answered my question. On my ebay post I listed it as AT&T unlocked. 

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

@Gary L. The end result is an unlocked phone, so yes.  

 

ACE - Professor

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2.2K Messages

7 years ago


@Gary L wrote:

@Lilybell2 @lizdance40

Is the end result the same thing?  

Or are there differences in the way things work later?

 

(Let's stay in the iPhone realm for the answers)


@Gary L  With Apple, the end result is pretty much the same.  However, as a matter of truthful advertising, a phone that has been carrier unlocked should not be advertised as factory unlocked. 

 

With Android, there's a big difference.   For example, an AT&T branded Samsung phone can be carrier unlocked and the phone moved to another carrier; however, the phone will not receive updates as it must be connected to the AT&T network to do so.  On the other hand, if the phone was a factory unlocked model, it could receive updates directly from Samsung.  

 

Master

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

There's also potentially an issue with tethering, some phones (this varies a lot) are still carrier-locked in the pre-installed tethering app, which must be worked around, if you want to use this functionality.

I'm not privy to this on iOS though, does this get unlocked simoultaneously?  Or do they have to do some more work, to get to a true "factory unlocked" state?

ACE - Sage

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116.6K Messages

7 years ago

@pgrey. The beauty of iOS, is it's the same on every Apple device everywhere.  iPhone is a non branded device.  

 While the hardware innards may vary, the iOS doesn't.  It's the only non branded device that can tether on Gophone, and will tether on other carriers, use MMS and even the non ATT version can use HD voice and wifi calling.  

Unlike other OS which has been altered for ATT, rather than fixing ATT wonky system so that all android OS is seen the same.

Ticks us android folks off....

 

 

@Lilybell2.  Exactly.  It should be noted that neither factory or carrier unlocked means a phone will work.  And the lack of carrier updates is either a blessing or curse.  A customer with a rooted Note Edge had to dump his ATT version because the doggone update unrooted it.  He picked up the T-Mo version and is rooted again.  Usually the complaint is lack of updates.

 

 

 

 

Master

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3.5K Messages

7 years ago

@lizdance40 Yeah, Win Phone is more or less the same, at least Win10 Phone.

The upgrades also come through that way, once set up properly.

 

My 950XL works on any carrier, and could have VoLTE and WiFi calling, if provisioned.

 

Android *could* have these features on (capable) non-branded devices too, in fact there's a certain other carrier that does just that, you can use un-branded Android, and have all those features, not an issue, hmm... ;-]

Your 6P is a good example.

 

Interesting though, I had thought AT&T "customized" their iOS devices, I didn't know it was the same device you purchase at the retail store.

 

It would be good if we eventually ended up on a similar model for Android, long-term, it sure would smooth things out.  It's a tough-sell, since all the manuf. want to personalize, but most of the users just want to be current, somewhere we'll meet a middle-ground, maybe....

ACE - Professor

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2.2K Messages

7 years ago

It will be interesting to see what Google brings to the table with their new Pixel phones being unveiled on October 4th.  I'm definitely looking forward to Tuesday. 

 

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