There’s a place where you can buy an unlocked iPhone 3G wherein doing so would be completely legal. Surprised? You shouldn’t be if it’s in a region where buying unlocked cell phones is more of a rule than an exception. The region we’re talking about here is Hong Kong, probably the only place on earth where you can freely pick both your phone and your carrier.

The principle behind an unlocked cell phone

To understand the basic principles of an unlocked iPhone 3G, it would be best to start with knowing what a locked cell phone is. When a phone is said to be locked, what is meant is that the phone can only be used when you insert a SIM card that is connected to the same carrier as the phone.

This kind of arrangement is common in almost every part of the world that uses cell phones. In the US, an iPhone that you buy from AT&T can only be used in the AT&T network. But if you buy an unlocked iPhone 3G, you’ll be able to insert a SIM from another carrier and use the phone on its network.

The rule, not the exception

In Hong Kong, where you can find a vast collection of cell phones, the phones that you buy are unlocked by default. Say that again? No really, if you buy an iPhone 3G in Hong Kong, you’d be able to use it on any network. Now, we’re not talking about bootleg versions. On the contrary, Apple itself has released unlocked iPhone 3G phones there.

The catch

There’s one caveat though, the price of an unlocked 3G iPhone is relatively higher there than if you bought one in the US. The reason is because, in the US, carriers like AT&T subsidize the cost of the phone in exchange for locking the subscriber into their network.

Buy an unlocked iPhone 3G

There are those who are simply fanatics of a certain kind of phone or brand. And when it comes to the word fanatic, that word can never be more appropriate to any other group of people than the fans of Steve Jobs, and hence the iPhone 3G. If you are one of them, then you wouldn’t mind paying the extra buck to buy an unlocked iPhone 3G? even if it were in Hong Kong.