A band of hackers have claimed that they will soon sell software allowing Apple’s iPhone to be used with any mobile phone carrier. At present, iPhone and AT&T have an exclusive deal in the United States
Consumer response to Apple’s novel phone has been somewhat low-key because of the fact that AT&T was iPhone’s only service provider in the United States.
However, a group of anonymous hackers has now promised on a website named iPhoneSIMfree.com that they would sell software that can open the
iPhone to other carriers in the next few days. They have not indicated a price.
The hackers have already presented their program to an expert working for CNN television, which announced that the iPhone was freed from AT&T’s monopoly “in just 2 minutes.”
The hacker group said “a core group of six people on three continents worked to unlock the iPhone as a hobby” and that they are fans of Apple products who thought the iPhone should be made accessible to people who cannot use AT&T.
Their website also claims that the device - costing $500 to $600 and which works as a mobile phone, music and video player, and web browser – can be manipulated without prying it open or soldering.
Hackers around the world have got down to unlocking iPhone codes since it was launched in the United States in 2007.
In the fourth week of August 2007, a 17-year-old boy had unblocked an iPhone, but he did so by opening the unit. The new method apparently takes advantage of the iPhone’s ability to connect to iTunes and receive downloads and updates from Apple.
Hackers in Lithuania had a few days ago launched a website offering to allow customers to unlock the iPhone AT&T for about 990 litas ($390.)
Originally, iPhoneSIMfree.com had said that it would sell its unlocking software directly to end users, but in an e-mail sent to “interested customers” later, iPhoneSIMfree.com changed its decision. The operation is now calling itself a ‘wholesale only’ company that will make the unlock available only to ‘resellers,’ leaving end-users without the software they were told was coming.
