UK company racing to free iPhone from A&TT
By John Pospisil
A lot of people like the iPhone, but a lot of people don’t like that the fact that in most cases you need to get into a two year mobile phone contract with AT&T before you can activate it.
While hacks have already appeared that allow the iPhone to be used as a sixth-generation iPod (ie no phone calls), a UK company that specializes in unlocking mobile phones says that it is racing to develop software that will allow consumers to activate their iPhones with SIM cards from other carriers.
Uniquephones specializes in remote mobile phone unlocking, and claims to have generated over 2.9 million unlock codes since 2002. The company says it can unlock over 1500 handsets from leading manufacturers, including Nokia, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson, locked to any network in the world.
The founder of Uniquephones, John McLaughlin, told IDG that his company was working around the clock to crack the security system that locks the iPhone to AT&T’s mobile phone network.
However, unlocking the iPhone has proven to be more complex than McLaughlin originally thought. While McLaughlin’s team has been able to unlock the activation process that ties the iPhone to a particular AT&T SIM card, the iTunes activation process still stops the handset from working with non-AT&T SIM cards.
McLaughlin claims that he’s received more than 150,000 inquiries about iPhone unlocking via a web site he set up.
It should be pointed out that even if Unqiuephones is successful in cracking the iPhone’s security system, there’s nothing to stop Apple from rendering cracked iPhones useless through a future firmware upgrade.
Uniquephones plans to charge $49.99 to unlock iPhones, assuming it is able to crack Apple’s security system. Interestingly, Uniquephones generally charges $5.99 to $25.99 for unlocking phones from other manufacturers, so obviously it thinks it can get away with charging a premium for the iPhone.
Even if just 2% of enquiries convert into sales, McLaughlin is poised to generate more than US$150,000 in revenue from iPhone unlocking. Not a bad a little earner if he can pull it off.
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on Friday, July 6th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
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