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ars

This title and article are not accurate.

It's not whenever you want - just are just clearly documenting when they will let you. For the actual info read here:

http://www.ctia.org/docs/default-source/fcc-filings/ctia-let...

In short:

Prepaid: 1 year.

Postpaid: When your contact is up.

Military: Upon deployment.

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I also love this part, in the attachment:

"Carriers reserve the right to charge non-customers/non-former-customers a reasonable fee for unlocking requests".

Who buys a phone "prepaid", that is locked?

I bought my iPhone straight from Apple, unlocked, to avoid it. Are there phones you pay for in full, up-front, that are still only available locked?

The only carrier I have found with decent coverage at my house is Verizon, who (as far as I can tell) charges me the same amount for a plan whether the phone is subsidized or not, on or off contract. Why shouldn't I get a subsidized plan?

If subsidized works for you, go for it. There are a bunch of MVNOs that host on Verizon. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_mobile_v...

Prepaid in this context i think is one of the cheap phones with no contract that you can grab in some places like walmart or gas stations. So you've got to have been using it for a year before you can unlock.

You can also buy prepaid, no-contract phones from major carriers like T-Mobile. They're not all cheap; you can get a pre-paid smart phone.

I just bought an iPhone 5s from T-Mobile yesterday. I paid $650 for it upfront. On a no contract plan. They won't unlock the phone for 45 days.

What is a "no contract plan"?

A post-paid plan with no long-term commitment.

That's disappointing. Is there a reason you didn't just buy an unlocked iPhone directly from Apple? Or did you assume (just as I would have) that because you paid full price it would be unlocked?

It was easier to walk into the T-Mobile store 5 minutes from my house than to order from Apple or Amazon and wait. And I can live with 45 days.

Such phones typically do have a contract that requires you to pre-pay a balance from which all fees are collected (and typically has no monthly fee).

The point is that the carrier also subsidizes the cost of the phone and hopes to recoup it through the fees. But since there are no guaranteed payments, the subsidy amount is usually low and the phones accordingly cheap.

My mom ended up with a locked AT&T Moto X that she bought "off-contract" from the Moto Maker website. She was pretty pissed when she found out she couldn't put it on T-Mobile.

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