That sounds messed up. I'm in Kenya and the model we follow is quite good. You buy phones as they are without SIM cards and get the card later from any of the 4 telcom companies here. If you don't like the current one, switch to a different carrier in a matter of minutes. That simple. Dual SIM phones are quite popular so you can take advantage of different offers. Sure, telcom companies do sell phones but they are rarely locked to that carrier. I've seen that phone sellers can have the same phone as the telcom company but at cheaper rates. Or vice versa. I got my lumia 1020 from the telcom company at a price 20% less than the current market price.
Updates come when MS releases them for the market irrespective of which carrier I am on. :excited:The only problem is that MS has forgot Kenya has Lumia 1020 devices and we need the denim update. It's been 8 months now