[Ben]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/02/o2_iphone_unlocking/

It's going to take a lot of media pressure, I think, for iPhone unlocking at end of contract to become a reality, but at least people are talking about it.

The UK absolutely needs controls to ensure all handsets can be unlocked at the end of their subsidised period.

[a_ukboy]

I hope this gets sorted soon because come Jan I'm jumping ship and moving to probably T-Mob, o2's network is just too poor, no signal at work and I live in London and service is terrible here too, very poor from a well established network... And I don't want to be left with just an iPod if o2 won't unlock.. But I upgraded myself and brought 3gs on pay as you go so I might have even more difficulty getting it unlocked.

[Ben]

Indeed, I want to move to Vodafone and I really don't want to be buying another new 3GS when there'll probably be a new iPhone announced 6-8 months later.

[Hands0n]

And what of all the fully unsubsidised iPhones bought full price from the Apple stores? ?There should be no tie-in to O2.

[gorilla]

I think in a future OS update, Apple might unlock the handset to certain carriers i.e. If all uk carriers are going to stock the iPhone, what benefit is there to Apple for locking the phone? It's Apple That locks the phone down (albeit at the request of the networks) and you can be sure that if Apple can convince customers to buy the iPhone direct from Apple they will want to do everything to ensure that happens and selling the iPhone sim free would convince customers to do just that.

[Hands0n]

Of course, the other interesting thing is ... if it is only Apple who can lock and unlock a handset ... how do they know which handset belongs to which operator? Or will iTunes force the customer to specific which operator to lock to at time of purchase?

I'm thinking here about PAYG iPhones bought from Apple stores.