Will O2 allow to unlock my iPhone at the end of the contract?

Unless required by law to do so, I wouldn't count on it. Since this is up to O2 only, you should ask O2.

Yes, O2 are required by Law to unlock your phone after your contract is complete.
This is standard UK Law.
You can pay off your contract early and request an unlock, or wait untill the end of the contract and request the unlock.

This is something that both Apple and O2 have deliberately kept quiet, but it is LAW in england.

They may try and charge, but im pretty sure they are not allowed to. This applies to any phone in the UK including PayG phones, but for them the period within which you have to wait before unlocking is a bit fuzzy, I think 12 months is considered fair.

Which Law is that.
Ofcom recommend that providers unlock and may charge for doing it but I would be curious to know which precise "standard law" you are referring to.

*I always thought it was the law to, but according to Wikipedia, it is not.*
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIMlock#UnitedKingdom*

Not that Wikipedia is always correct of course 🙂

But I think it is in this case 😟

And with the increased competition in UK from Orange and Vodafone I cannot see any realistic chance of O2 changing their stance and give away revenue and subscibers

I'm confused...are you saying that ALL carriers have the equipment to unlock iphones if they choose to??? I thought only Apple could unlock the phones...? Does apple provide the hardware/software to the carriers to do this?

To the OP. I would say O2 dont have to do anything. It is not up to them to unlock your phone. I seriously doubt they could unlock it. You can unlock it yourself on the internet. It's not up to O2 and its NOT law they have to.

There is NO uk law regarding the unlocking of phones. Ofcom recently changed their page removing references to saying that operators should unlock phones.

However, we are part of europe. The EU has several competition laws the prevent lock in using provider locks.
In fact, if you read it carefully even O2 being "Exclusive" supplier of the iPhone could be considered against EU law as it prevents cross border trade because the phones are locked to O2 and as such only work in England.

So, while you are right there is no Uk law, EU law supercedes any lack of local law. Unless O2 want to fight europe on this one, they are legally obliged to unlock any phone they provide.

You may have to take them to court to get them to do it though.

So, will it be easy? No.
Will it be possible? Maybe.
Is it LEGAL for them to refuse? NO.
Are they legally obliged to unlock? Yes.

I'm confused...are you saying that ALL carriers have the equipment to unlock iphones if they choose to??? I thought only Apple could unlock the phones...? Does Apple provide the hardware/software to the carriers to do this?

I think the carrier tell Apple to unlock a particular iPhone so the next Restore will download new, unlocked, firmware.