What Are Sim Free Phones

Until recently, most people who buy a mobile phone in the UK will purchase it either as part of a monthly contract or a pay as you go handset.

With a monthly contract you will usually expect to have to pay a fixed amount each month, for which you’ll be given a certain number of free minutes and texts, and often the phone handset is thrown in for free but in reality you’ll be paying for the cost of it over the duration of the contract, which will last between 12 and 24 months depending on the deal.

With Pay as you go, PAYG, you’ll have to pay the initial cost for the handset, but then there’s no monthly commitment and you simply top up your phone with credit whenever you need to.

This system has been around for ages, and in both cases the phone will come with a SIM card and will be registered to whichever particular network you have chosen. When most monthly contracts are coming to the end of their terms, you will be offered a free upgrade handset to replace your old one, but again you’ll need to commit for another lengthy term – increasingly 18 months rather than the previous 12 month contracts – and if you loose or break your handset with either pay monthly or pay as you go deals, you’ll be on your own and forced to buy a new phone, unless you pay even more for phone insurance.

It’s a very fickle business that is based on loyalty, commitment to the same network and luck. However, there is another option out there that you may not have considered, and that is the SIM free phone.

Every mobile phone requires a SIM – Subscriber Identity Module – card to connect to the mobile networks as it identifies the user, and every mobile handset will have a SIM card slot, usually beneath the battery.

SIM cards are universally the same, so any SIM card can be used in any handset, and so in order to avoid being committed to one network, you can buy a variety of handsets that come unlocked and SIM free, allowing you to then choose your own network and install your own SIM card, and there are various applications of this technology.

Lost or Stolen Phones

If you lose a phone that was provided with a monthly contract or it is stolen, you’ll need to replace it off your own back. The network may provide you with a new SIM card for free, but then you’ll need to choose a handset. Going for a SIM free one means you can spend anywhere between £10 and £500, so you won’t have to break the bank, but in this situation you’ll still be tied to your network for the duration of the contract.

Specialist Handsets

Some handsets are only available on certain networks, for example the Apple iPhone is only available in the UK with an O2 monthly contract or an O2 pay as you go. However, you can buy unlocked, SIM free iPhones and install the SIM of your choice, which means you’ve got a wider market of deals available to you with any handset you like.

SIM Only Deals

If you’re starting from scratch and building your own mobile phone deal, then pairing a SIM free phone with a SIM only deal offered by most of the major mobile telecommunications networks is a great step to take.

SIM only deals operate much in the same way as the pay monthly and pay as you go offers that include both the phone itself and the SIM card, but they offer significantly more freedom because they are not subject to lengthy contracts. The minimum contracts on most SIM only deals is 30 days, for which you’ll get a fixed number of free minutes and texts, usually of a more generous variety than included with pay monthly fixed term contracts, and usually the SIM card and connection is included completely free.

Some SIM only deals even give you unlimited access to mobile internet, and it’s hard for a monthly contract to beat the offers from this sector. You can even migrate your existing number over to your new SIM so there’s minimum hassle for maximum benefits.

Pay as you go SIM only deals combined with a SIM free phone allow you to choose your own great handset and then top up by how ever much you require a month, and you’ll even get benefits like unlimited free texts if you top up by a required amount, but again there’s no commitment.