What’s the advantage an unlocked over a locked tablet?
A locked tablet has to be used with whichever carrier you purchased the tablet from. In the case of the tablets here, they were originally locked to AT&T so before they were unlocked you could only use them with an AT&T mobile plan (they still work on wifi without a plan).
An unlocked tablet can be used on any GSM carrier. So instead of only being able to use AT&T, you can use any of the carriers below. Many of these likely have better service and/or pricing in your area. In addition, if you travel overseas, you can buy a cheap SIM card and have inexpensive data there instead of the insane roaming charges that a US carrier would charge.
- Airfire Mobile
- ASTAC
- Asset/Vada Wireless (uses AT&T/ TMobile)
- AT&T (Includes GoPhone Prepaid, Dobson Cellular, Edge Wireless and Centennial Wireless)
- Broadpoint
- Calhan Wireless
- call4care
- Cellular One of East Central Illinois
- Cellular One of East Arizona
- Cellular One Nation
- Cellular One TXOK
- Chariton Valley Wireless
- Cincinnati Bell Wireless
- Commnet Wireless (also uses CDMA)
- Consumer Cellular (uses AT&T towers)
- Cordova Wireless
- Corr Wireless
- Cross Communications
- DTC Wireless
- Earthtones
- Epic PCS
- Fuzion Mobile
- GCI Wireless (also uses CDMA)
- GTC Wireless (uses AT&T towers)
- i wireless
- Immix
- Indigo Wireless
- Jolt Wireless (uses AT&T towers)
- KTC PACE
- Locus Mobile (uses CDMA, Verizon & AT&T towers)
- Long Lines Wireless
- Mobal Freedom (uses AT&T towers)
- NEP Wireless
- Pine Cellular
- Plateau Wireless
- Pure Prepaid (uses AT&T towers)
- Pure Talk USA (uses AT&T towers)
- Simple Mobile (uses T-Mobile towers)
- Shaka Mobile (also uses CDMA, Verizon & Sprint towers)
- Telecom North America Mobile Inc
- TerreStar
- T-Mobile USA
- TracFone Wireless (also uses CDMA, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, US Cellular and T-Mobile towers)
- Tru (uses T-Mobile towers)
- Union Wireless
- Viaero Wireless
- Wal-Mart Family Mobile (uses T-Mobile towers)
- West Central Wireless
- Westlink
- XIT Communications
Can you make calls with this model if you use a sim card?
Also can you get updates on WiFi only if you do not buy a sim card?
Has anyone bought this model from a recent woot? Any feedback?
You would need an application like Skype to make calls. It is not a telephone.
You can get updates over Wi-Fi with no problems.
Ditto to BigD. Bought the Samsung Tab 2 for traveling. A friend incurred $600 in roaming. I got a phone number from Google Voice which I think can be used to buy minutes in various areas (with sim card) so you know that can’t happen. The unlocked are a bit cheaper on Amazon if you don’t need this.