Please help a super n00b

[Skylitfly]

Sorry I misinterpreted your question. Carriers sell phones with SIMs (often to new customers, and incorporating a discount); manufacturers sell unlocked phones. I guess I don't understand why a carrier would order multiple SKUs of a phone (SIM-included and unlocked), when the SIM-included model is the one it has arranged for the manufacturer to produce for them.

Right. Thats awfull in my opinion. In Finland where I live, all carriers so far has sold me the unlocked version of the phone regardless if I got a contract or not. They just hand me the phone and sim separately.

 

[mpavilion]

Right. Thats awfull in my opinion. In Finland where I live, all carriers so far has sold me the unlocked version of the phone regardless if I got a contract or not. They just hand me the phone and sim separately.

I hear you... But do the Finnish carriers historically use compatible networks? Until the advent of LTE here in U.S. (and even now to a minor extent), the networks were not necessarily inter-compatible. The rise of "unlocked" phones which can work on any carrier is a new development here. (There is a separate issue of some carriers preferring to keep phones locked to their network, unless/until required by law to unlock at customer's request... which was definitely anticompetitive.)