Most likely yes. Well, you could operate them over short distances on unlicensed bands, but to operate a mobile carrier (in most of the world) you need to buy a license for some spectrum. In the US, these didn't come with strings attached, so you ended up with some CDMA carriers and some GSM carriers, with no interoperability. In most of Europe, they came with a requirement to deploy GSM. Similar conditions were applied for 3G frequencies. In the UK, companies had to request regulator approval to repurpose their existing frequencies to new technologies. This was mostly granted (as long as it was for industry standard protocols). I don't know what LTE coverage is like, but I've not had a problem with getting an HPSA in any parts of the UK that I've tried, so I believe that it works and I know that any phone I buy will work with any carrier. Especially now, when spending over £100 on a smartphone is fairly common, knowing that doing so doesn't lock you in to a specific carrier is valuable.