Whats the deal with unlocked phones on ebay. I am guessing you can use that phone on any mobile provider such as verizon, cingular, t-mobile, etc....

Are these illegal? If so, whats the chances of getting caught?

How do you get service without telling the provider what phone you have, and if its not one of their compatible ones they will know...

So I am a little confused, please help on this.

 

unlock phones mean u can use it for any GSM service provider anywhere, if its a world phone, u can use it with any GSM service provider in any country.

NO it is not illegal.

 

So llegally I can just buy an unlocked phone of my choice on ebay and use verizon wireless as my provider?

 

If a phone is locked or unlocked, it is generally a GSM phone. In the US, GSM phones are only compatible with GSM networks such as ATTWS, Cingular, T-Mobile.

Sprint and Verizon are of the non-GSM flavour which is CDMA. Only Sprint and Verizon approved phones are allowed on the network (not 100% sure about VZW).

It is completely legal to use an unlocked phone on your GSM network, all you do is insert your sim-card. That's the way the technology is designed. GSM has strict requirements and all GSM phones are supposed to conform. No need to inform your carrier officially.

An unlocked phone has more value than a locked phone...of course. If you are buying from eBay, be sure that phone is really unlocked. How? Check the seller's feedback. Or ask if you will be able to use [your service provider] with this phone. Because if you obtain a locked GSM phone, it will be difficult to impossible (and maybe costly) to get it unlocked yourself. At least that's the way it used to be.

 

I have had black market asian phones on verizon before, and it went through after nagging them to do an esn change for me

 

THis is the phone, i had 2 years ago...its a nice ass small phone, but i got chubby fingers...and some of the features were useless

 

You champions, I got the phone fixed free under no warranty.... It was some champion who hooked me up at verizon