They are easy to unlock, a chap a Liverpool St station in the phone shop there sells a small plastic holder that your sim card goes in. Its £20, you pop your simcard in it and slot that into your Iphone 'et voila' phone now on your network.....
im aware of that bud, but with that route you cannot accept updates or it locks the phone out for good....
the italian or other factory unlocked phones were never locked, as abroad they dont conform to the same silly branding criteria as the uk..
but having said that...the 3gs is on orange soon, so i think an upgrade is in order!