Well, just for the record, I bought a heavily subsidized Galaxy S sim-unlocked with a 2 year contract (the cost was something like $30). Gave it to my wife, then bought myself a SG II. And I'm happily paying for my contract btw.
The carrier I'm talking about is a smaller one from Europe. It's unthinkable to ask this of Vodafone or Orange (the 2 big ones) since their heads are really up their buts. And the unlocking prices they charge are freakin` insane! It's not as if carriers can't do this, they just don't want to.
I really don't understand what's their problem. If I'm terminating my contract I have to pay the phone's subsidized price for the months remaining, their only loss is me as their customer, so WTF is the deal with sim-locked phones? I hate it when companies, instead of pleasing customers, are innovating in better lock-in methods.
But yes, I was talking about bootloader-unlock in my previous message. Really, Nexus S is the best Android sold right now, unfortunately it was only available from Vodafone and I'll never make a contract with Vodafone again.
I bought a Wildfire which was locked to Vodafone. I took it to the nearest Vodafone shop and they unlocked it for me without charge. I was surprised and highly pleased until I realised that removing the sim-lock does not remove the lock on the bootloader.
I've found it depends where you get the phone. All the phones I've got from Carphone Warehouse have been unlocked, all the ones from operator shops have been locked.
The carrier I'm talking about is a smaller one from Europe. It's unthinkable to ask this of Vodafone or Orange (the 2 big ones) since their heads are really up their buts. And the unlocking prices they charge are freakin` insane! It's not as if carriers can't do this, they just don't want to.
I really don't understand what's their problem. If I'm terminating my contract I have to pay the phone's subsidized price for the months remaining, their only loss is me as their customer, so WTF is the deal with sim-locked phones? I hate it when companies, instead of pleasing customers, are innovating in better lock-in methods.
But yes, I was talking about bootloader-unlock in my previous message. Really, Nexus S is the best Android sold right now, unfortunately it was only available from Vodafone and I'll never make a contract with Vodafone again.