No all locked phones are a way to get more money out of people..not sell phones for less. They dont want people installing apps they dont approve of..thats it.
Two of the first things I did with my iPhone was “Jailbreak” it, the second was to Unlock it.
After paying a large monthly fee and being locked in to a 2-year contract, the third thing I did was drop AT&T when my contract was up.
I now outright own an LG Spirit smart phone.
Dual-Core, 1.5Ghz Snapdragon CPU, 1GB RAM, 4GB of storage upgradable to 36GB with a $25.00, 32GB Micro SD card, Full HD video, 4.5” screen, 5MP Camera w/LED Flash, Android ICS O/S, etc.. - all for just $200.00 after a $70.00 rebate.
And I can sell it if I want to upgrade to some other phone whenever I want.
And unlike an iPhone, I can easily and inexpensively replace the battery and as mentioned, I can upgrade the storage capacity inexpensively as well - two things you can’t do with an iPhone.
I also switched to Metro PCS and my monthly, no-contract bill for Unlimited Calls, Unlimited Texts, 500 MB of Data and fast 4GLTE service is $30.00 total per month which is saving me $50.00 a month over my service with AT&T and no dropped calls like I had with AT&T
Note that this is not a sales pitch nor do I have any affiliation with LG or Metro, but I wanted to share information that can save cell phone users a good $600.00 a year without sacrificing service or having to settle for a lousy phone.
Contracts are a rip-off and you are basically stuck with a carrier for 2-years and they own the phone, not you and if you have service problems or move someplace with no or bad reception, you’re SOL