Here in Finland, and probably some other European countries too, it's illegal for the providers to sell locked phones. This isn't the only means to enforcing competition in the provider market. Providers must also rent out network capacity to 'virtual operators' who don't have their own networks. And the best thing is, you can change providers and keep your phone number.
Especially the ability to move to a different provider while keeping your number has really driven the prices down. Also as you need to buy the phone separately, you can choose whatever model you fancy and it's cheaper when your provider doesn't have a monopoly.
Data transfer is a bit expensive though, 10/month for unlimited 64kbit/s.
Slashdot Mirror
Here in Finland, and probably some other European countries too, it's illegal for the providers to sell locked phones. This isn't the only means to enforcing competition in the provider market. Providers must also rent out network capacity to 'virtual operators' who don't have their own networks. And the best thing is, you can change providers and keep your phone number.
Especially the ability to move to a different provider while keeping your number has really driven the prices down. Also as you need to buy the phone separately, you can choose whatever model you fancy and it's cheaper when your provider doesn't have a monopoly.
Data transfer is a bit expensive though, 10/month for unlimited 64kbit/s.