Beginning Thursday, March 28, 2013, if you’ve own your Rogers cellphone for more than 90 days, you can bring your device to any Rogers retail outlet and get it unlocked for $50.
Previously, you would have to wait until the end of your contract before you could request an ‘unlock’ on your device.
What is unlocking?
When you purchase a cellphone from a carrier, ie. Rogers, that cellphone can only be used with a Rogers Account. By unlocking the device, it allows you to use the cellphone on any carrier account you choose, ie. MTS, Fido, Bell – or even overseas and U.S. carriers such as AT&T.
The benefits of this is you’ll avoid paying roaming charges when traveling. What I usually do with my unlocked device is I purchase a “Pay As You Go” sim card at the Country I’m traveling in. This provides a very low-cost cellphone account without any overpriced roaming charges from your home carrier.
The resell value of your phone increases drastically as well. When trying to sell your device, your customer base becomes ‘world-wide’ instead of being tied to customers from the same carrier.
