Can you use UNLOCKED cell phones in any company plan?

Question

What does "UNLOCKED cell phone" really means? If you buy UNLOCKED cell phone from someone or a company then can you use it in any Cell Phone Company Plan?

Answer 1

Most unlocked phones can be used with almost any cell phone plan, but there are the occasional few that will only work with certain plans. Unlocked just means it was unlocked from a specific network so that it can be used with other networks. For example if you buy a phone locked to Cingular, you can get an unlock code so that the phone can also be used with T-Mobile, Verizon, etc. But you have to be careful with using an unlocked phone for a plan it wasn't originally made for, because you might not be able to use certain network features such as text messaging or internet browsing. I have a Cingular plan, & at one point I bought a Blackberry that wasn't a model Cingular ever carried. I could make/receive calls, but could not use text messaging or internet.

Answer 2

You can use it with any company with GPS service. Most of the major carriers, with the exception of companies such as Sprint and Verizon which are on CDMA networks, are GPS.

Regarding the answer above mine, you definitely CANNOT use an "unlocked" cell phone on Verizon. Verizon is on a CDMA network, whereas T-Mobile and Cingular are GPS.