Hi Alan,
It's a simple calculation excersize. Let's go with the original subsidized price of a 5S 64 Gig which I believe was $299 on a 2-year contract. The same phone unlocked and at full retail would have cost you I believe $849 in the US. So, $850 less $300 is $550. This means you save $550 by buying the phone from AT&T and that is over a 24 months period, $550 into 24 months means you save $22.92 (rounded) per month. So, unless you can find a provider which gives you the same service or whatever level of service you need for at least $23 a month less than what you are paying with AT&T it is not worthwhile to buy the phone unlocked. There is of course the other advantage of being able to use the phone if you travel, but that of course is only an issue if you do travel to a country where you want to use your phone with a local provider's SIM. I have been to the Philippines 3 times this year and over there it's a simple matter to buy a SIM for about a Buck and you can get unlimited prepaid data for either 1 day for about $1.20, for 5 days for about $4/.75 or for 1 month for about $23.50. Also, in my case, I am with a Canadian MVNO called Koodo and I pay $50 Canadian for unlimited calling and texting in Canada, voice mail and 2 Gb of data. I would pay at least $30 a month more for that from one of the major providers where I could get an iPhone at a subsidized price so for me the calculation works and I do save money over the 2-year contract period. Regards, Sieghard From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Alan Lemly Sent: Thursday, August 07, 2014 7:55 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Unlocked iPhones and SIM Cards I'm wanting to learn about unlocked iPhones should I decide at some point to upgrade my phone. I currently have an iPhone 5 with AT&T but that contract ends in a few months. I was just on the Apple site playing around to check the cost of an unlocked 64GB iPhone 5S. One of the options was to buy a SIM-free phone with the stipulation that the user would need a GSM-compatible SIM. Would the SIM in my current iPhone 5 meet this need in a 5S model or has the SIM card form factor changed between the 5 and 5S models? I'm almost afraid to ask this but is there an advantage to buying an unlocked iPhone if financing is not an issue and the buy-down price of entering into a contract is not a factor? I've been happy with my AT&T service but my own experience with this sort of thing tells me that I'll save money in the long-run by having an unlocked phone. Of course, I believe when my contract ends with AT&T, I can have them unlock my iPhone 5 if it is still meeting my needs. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this subject. Alan Lemly -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . To post to this group, send email to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> . Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- The following information is important for all members of the viphone list. All new members to the this list are moderated by default. If you have any questions or concerns about the running of this list, or if you feel that a member's post is inappropriate, please contact the owners or moderators directly rather than posting on the list itself. The archives for this list can be searched at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/. --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "VIPhone" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/viphone. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
