Will O2 unlock your iPhone when your contract comes to an end?

O2's iPhone exclusivity is coming to an end, with both Orange and Vodafone waiting in the wings to deliver their own Apple-based contracts before the end of the year.

But what about those of us who took out an O2 contract so we could get an iPhone? If you're not looking to upgrade a perfectly usable handset, but would like to switch your iPhone onto a different carrier's contract, the jailbreaking dilemma rears its head in a whole new arena.

Up until now, O2 has refused to issue any unlock codes for the iPhone after a contract has run out, since it held an exclusivity license or the Apple device. It's not at all unreasonable - indeed, it's fully expected - that the carrier should not render your iPhone unusable now its exclusivity has come to an end.

"We did not offer unlocking at the end of a customer’s iPhone contract as we had the exclusive contract for the iPhone in the UK," O2 tells The Register. "Obviously, that situation has changed... and we are currently working through what will happen."

In the long run it seems unreasonable that O2 would choose - or would even be allowed to - prevent people from making use of their own property when switching carriers, but whether or not that will happen in a timely manner is an entirely different story. Neither has there been any mention of how iPhone contracts that ended some time ago would be handled: would those iPhones also be officially unlocked?

In the meantime, existing iPhone users looking to change over to Orange or Vodafone could have their choices limited to buying a new handset or jailbreaking their old one.