no a locked phone cannot be used with a local sim as yet how
ever i just unlocked my phone 2days ago following this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWCW1Jkv27w
and so far its working without any problems but its a risk your
taking to unlock it anyway..
as for when its coming to Spore i've heard of 3 posibilities
that is June from a friend working at apples, September in the news
or its wouldnt make it here at all due to something bout sim-lock
issues..
It's the inflexibility to change between operators that cause
problems... iPhone locked down to only one operator. That's how
Apple earns from it... but Singapore telecommunication laws prevent
that.
If you want unlocked version... there's a price to pay. And that
price is passed down us consumers. France uses the unrestricted
version... you should see how much the phone costs as compared with
one that's locked down...
Recently there's rumours that Singtel could be able to offer,
but Singtel denied the rumours.
There's also rumours that M1 will be offering, but no
confirmations.