Google to Sell Unlocked Phones

Google's Unlocked Phone Could Start a Revolution is an article at the Live Science website providing some practical news about unlocked phones. Google is in the process of making unlocked cell phones available to American consumers. The advantage of them is that they give consumers the freedom to pick their cell phone provider based on the quality of the service provided for the cost charged rather than based on a phone purchase. The current industry norm involes a large discount on a purchased phone in return for a contract which binds the purchaser to the phone provider for a period of time which is typically two years. The phone provider will make up the discounted phone revenue during the two year period with built in costs in monthly payments.

When you purchase an unlocked phone you simply take the SIM card out of your old phone and put it in the new one. SIM stands for Subscriber Identity Module.