Carriers do not want you to unlock your phone. Carriers make no money when they sell you a phone, they lose money with every phone they sell at a discounted price, and they don’t make a ton when you buy it outright either… They make their money when they get you by the balls for 2 years.
Some carriers sell unlocked phones, they do so at a higher cost, even though in reality there is no reason for a higher cost. They also want you to be locked into their network. They don’t want someone to be able to take a phone they bought from them and go use it on another network. They also don’t want a new customer using a phone from another network when they sign up, they want you to sign that 2 year contract…
Cell phone manufactures as well sign deals with carriers, to sell that phone exclusively for whatever ammount of time on that network, again, they lose the “edge” they have when someone starts selling or unlocking their phones.
I’m not a lawyer, so I’m sure theres some BS reason this is getting put into play, im sure some carrier bitched that a “proprietary” phone can be unlocked and used wherever…I’m sure theres some dumb FCC shit to in regards to phones from overseas being unlocked and brought over…