Unlocked iPhone 4S Coming Soon

There is a good news for you who love Apple iPhone! Apple is offering unlocked iPhone 4S to U.S. consumers within weeks of its debut. Starting next month, you can buy an unlocked iPhone 4S from Apple and not attached to any carrier.

Bin Lee is among those interested in buying an unlocked iPhone 4S.
Lee carries two phones: an iPhone 3G that's got a Bay Area phone number and a Samsung Galaxy that's got an Asian number. An unlocked iPhone 4S would not only be a nice upgrade from his older iPhone, but would allow him to plug in a local SIM card in whatever country he's in. Having to pay overseas roaming charges to a U.S. carrier would be much more costly.

Paul Singh is also interested in the unlocked iPhone 4S. First, Apple is charging a premium of $450 for the unlocked devices. The unlocked 16-gigabyte iPhone 4S costs $649; the one locked to AT&T costs just $199.

Second, the unlocked iPhone 4S only work on GSM-compatible carriers. So even though you can buy an iPhone 4S that's tied to Sprint or Verizon, you can't use an unlocked iPhone on those networks.

Carriers typically charge high rates for phone service to make up for the costs of offering consumers discounted phones. The flip side of that is that some carriers offer lower-priced service to customers who bring their own phones to the service or pay in full for those phones from the carrier.

Even if consumers buy an unlocked iPhone 4S, they'll pay the same fare for AT&T service they would pay if they got a subsidized phone from the company.

For customers who pay full fare for some Android and other smartphones, AT&T offers a $50-a-month no-contract plan that features unlimited calling, text messaging and data usage. Consumers can take their unlocked iPhone 4S to T-Mobile and get a similar $50-a-month no-contract plan. AT&T doesn't offer an unlimited-everything plan for iPhone users. At that rate, users who take their unlocked phone to T-Mobile could make up the extra cost in six months. Anyway, if you have a plan to buy an unlocked iPhone 4S, you may also need an iPhone 4S case.