No doubt it was part of their deal with AT&T. U.S. telcoms (especially AT&#3... | Hacker News

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		officemonkey on June 14, 2011 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Unlocked iPhone 4 up for sale No doubt it was part of their deal with AT&T. U.S. telcoms (especially AT&T) are big bullies. Apple needed to play ball when they were first getting started. Now of course, they don't need AT&T, so they're dropping all the restrictions as soon as they're legally able to.

rmc on June 14, 2011 [–]

No doubt it was part of their deal with AT&T

Possibly. Another factor is that in some countries mobile phone networks are legally required to unlock phones after a certain date.

officemonkey on June 15, 2011 | [–]

That doesn't explain why in the UK and France you were able to buy an unlocked phone pretty much from the get-go.

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