Pay full price without a contract.

[martosprint]

Try to help me out understanding this. If I were to pay full price for the new iPhone without a contract from any provider, how do I connect to the internet?
I still would need ATT or Sprint to activate the phone to get online. What if any would be the benefit of buying the phone at full price without a contract? Is it just for being able to use wi-fi at home and at other places that provide wi-fi? I don't understand it all, so if anybody would enlighten me as to how it all works I would appreciate it. I know the big difference in price is an issue. I have 2 iPads and 2 iMacs so I am familiar with Apple products, but it would be my first iPhone that I am thinking of getting.

thanks for a reply....

 

[Velin]

You get a cheaper monthly wireless bill, plus you are not locked into a contract. For example, T-Mobile has some excellent no-contract plans with unlimited data, they are about half the price what some of the bigs are charging.

Also, with an unlocked phone, you can basically use any carrier. Slip in a new SIM card, boom, good to go with a new carrier.

Unlocked is the only way to go. People overseas totally understand this, U.S. is way behind.

 

[Yekezei]

I was wondering the same thing. I'm from Belgium and phone locking is forbidden by law here, but even in the European countries where they lock phones the majority of the people have unlocked phones.

I don't really understand the benefits you get when buying a locked phone and being bound to a two-year contract?

Not judging just trying to understand, there must be an advantage to it right?

 

[Velin]

I was wondering the same thing. I'm from Belgium and phone locking is forbidden by law here, but even in the European countries where they lock phones the majority of the people have unlocked phones.

I don't really understand the benefits you get when buying a locked phone and being bound to a two-year contract?

Not judging just trying to understand, there must be an advantage to it right?

Not for the consumer, it's designed to screw them. It's great if you are a big phone company, you get to trap people for two years, with higher prices, and worst of all the phone is locked to their services, making it very costly and difficult to switch to a better carrier.

The only one who benefits are the wireless companies.

 

[zhenya]

Here in the US, other than T-Mobile which has the weakest network, the big companies give you no discount for bringing your own phone, so far from their being a benefit, it is in fact giving money away to not buy their phone and sign the contract. I've changed phone providers 3 times in over 15 years. It's not something I want to do regularly, and by signing that contract, I get a new phone every year for effectively no cost after I sell the old one. Works for me...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Here in the US, other than T-Mobile which has the weakest network, the big companies give you no discount for bringing your own phone, so far from their being a benefit, it is in fact giving money away to not buy their phone and sign the contract. I've changed phone providers 3 times in over 15 years. It's not something I want to do regularly, and by signing that contract, I get a new phone every year for effectively no cost after I sell the old one. Works for me...

I have the same outlook as you. If you sit in one spot and have good T-Mobile coverage, then there are advantages to paying full price for an iPhone. If you're a frequent world traveler, there are benefits to having an unlocked iPhone. But for many of us, especially those that want the best coverage available in the US, but don't travel internationally, then the Big 2 (AT&T and Verizon) are the way to go. And since they don't offer a cheaper plan for unlocked phones, then it just makes sense to buy a subsidized phone and sign a two-year contract...

Bryan

 

[silentbob007]

I was wondering the same thing. I'm from Belgium and phone locking is forbidden by law here, but even in the European countries where they lock phones the majority of the people have unlocked phones.

I don't really understand the benefits you get when buying a locked phone and being bound to a two-year contract?

Not judging just trying to understand, there must be an advantage to it right?

Contract phones in the US tend to be subsidized by the carrier. So you can pay $199 with a 2-yr contract instead of $649 with no contract.

 

[martosprint]

Thanks for all the replies. The info you all provided was helpful. 

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I know that Apple has a 30 day iPhone return policy. I want to know if I first get it with ATT and then return it and got another iPhone from Apple and went with Sprint, would they do that? In other words I want to compare which of the two providers is giving me the best service in my area. I've looked at the coverage maps for both ATT and Sprint, but it's still hard to tell which would be best for me in my area.
thanks for a reply

 

[Truefan31]

So my understanding is that the verizon 5s has all the bands, including CDMA and gsm bands, while the gsm unlocked ones only have the gsm bands then? So would it be beneficial to buy the verizon iPhone 5s full price unlocked so it can be used on every carrier in the us (cept sprint)?

 

[corys00]

Thanks for all the replies. The info you all provided was helpful. 

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I know that Apple has a 30 day iPhone return policy. I want to know if I first get it with ATT and then return it and got another iPhone from Apple and went with Sprint, would they do that? In other words I want to compare which of the two providers is giving me the best service in my area. I've looked at the coverage maps for both ATT and Sprint, but it's still hard to tell which would be best for me in my area.
thanks for a reply

All the providers have a 14 day return period to get out of their contract. Sure, you could return the phone to Apple on the 15th day, you're not getting out of contract.