I've heard that Portugal, New Zealand and Hong Kong are some of the ones. Why is that? And why isn't every single one unlocked?
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Why do some countrys sell unlocked Iphones?
- Thread starter sergiuria
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I understand it's because of the laws in those countries regarding how mobile phones are sold. Some places require carriers to make unlocked phones available. France is one such country as well.
Every single one isn't unlocked because dumb Americans wouldn't know how to buy a Cell Phone and not have a contract tied to it. durr durr
Americans do like being told what to do even when they think there expressing themselves in a way they are told to. I hope in a year we see unlocked phones.
Keep dreaming! Not going to happen.
I think that in Europe, Belgium is the only country that bans SIM locks outright. The legislators of that country are considering revoking that law, and there's also a court case saying that Belgium's law violates EU trade regulations anyway.
In several other countries, for example France and Hong Kong (and possibly others) it is perfectly legal to sell the cell phones with a SIM lock in place. However, once the initial contract expires, it is mandatory to provide a mechanism to remove the SIM lock free of charge.
Since it is mandatory in those countries that the SIM lock must be removable at some point in the future, some carriers will allow you to remove the lock early on demand - they may charge a fee before the contract is up. Or they may offer a version where the SIM lock was not there in the first place, even though they're allowed to be locked, because they want to avoid the costs they'd otherwise incur at the end of the contract for deploying and maintaining a database of SIM unlocks, and for providing the actual customer service to remove the locks.
Italy here, unlocked iPhones even with a contract, so you can pay a subsidized price as well, don't know which one is the lowest,maybe even free..whatever, the thing is that Apple wanted to sell more devices and TIM/Vodafone wanted to make money, they wouldn't have sold as many devices if they were locked, and everyone is happy now. Even the other 2 Cellphone Companies available in Italy that offer better Data services