At PC Magazine, we’ve long been proponents of unlocked cell phones. Last year we reviewed 39 unlocked models available in the U.S., and our list of The Best Unlocked Phones offers options from $149 up to $700.

In 2006, I declared that the “unlocked cell phone revolution begins now.” It didn’t. According to Strategy Analytics, 14.6 million unlocked phones were sold in the U.S. in 2015, for a total of about 10 percent of the US market, with Blu and Apple leading the pack at 36 percent and 12.3 percent, respectively, of that 10 percent total share.

There are several historic reasons for this. Verizon and Sprint have been hostile to unlocked phones in the past. Our country’s diverse array of technologies and frequency bands used to mean that one carrier’s phones simply wouldn’t work on another, even unlocked. Americans aren’t used to paying for phones up front, and for many years, phone prices were hidden in carriers’ nearly universal two-year contracts.

But that’s starting to change. More people are paying full price for their phones now, whether up front or through two-year payment plans. Alcatel executives told us last year that by the end of 2016, Verizon may start to accept LTE-only devices, which would make the carrier much friendlier to unlocked phones. And universal modems that support all carriers are becoming more popular.