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I don't get why those cellphones are locked in the first place. I have a carrier subsidized phone (Belgian carrier) and this is a phone exactly the same as you could buy on your own. I have a two year contract and if I would cancel it, I'll have to pay the residual value of the phone.

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It's possible to buy non-contract locked-to-carrier phones, too. Often those come with prepaid or pay-what-you-use plans. That's when they want to keep you on the carrier, because they want to keep you spending on it.

Some carriers indeed sell non-locked phones when there's a multi-year contract already.

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