Way back in November of last year, the Library of Congress made is legal to unlock your mobile phone. So, theoretically when the iPhone comes out, you could unlock your iPhone and use it on another carrier.
Of course, that is just in theory. More than likely Apple will include some form of protection against this sort of action. However, there are more than enough people in the world that love nothing more than to circumvent security measures. It’s like trying to stop people from hacking Windows; no matter how long Microsoft works at it, there’s always someone out there running a hacked copy of Vista.
The reason that I don’t see this happening is that in order to get an iPhone, Cingular is going to want you to sign up for a 2-year plan. It’s going to cost a lot of money to buy one, then turn around a break your contract and go somewhere else. Then again, there will likely be people purchasing iPhones with the plan only to hack them, then turn around and sell them for outrageous prices on ebay.
Cell phone unlocking legal (for three years) [via arstechnica]
It clearly only uses GSM networks,
so that crosses out about half of the possible options.
And we can rest assured Apple will do everything possible to make sure it won’t work on other networks.
So it’s great I have Cingular!!!!!!!!!!!
WOOT!
Besides that point. iPhone is useless without those cool features that is has. And say if you go to tmobile with an unlocked iphone. You really can’t get all the advantages with tmobile.
Besides that point. TMOBILE SUCKS.
Besides the random access voicemail, which “cool” features are carrier dependent? (carrier specific?)
first of all t mobile does not suck , secondly the i phone is a over hyped over priced pile of junk .. no one is gonna pay all that money for crap !
also a gsm phone thats quadband cant be unlocked it dumb , what if cingular customers go over seas ? they cant use sim cards from other countries cause the p.o.s cant be unlocked? give me a break .. garbage
haha ok, Yo if you haven’t noticed this is a site where people, you know actually like the iPhone maybe you should go talk to someone else about your problems with the iPhone and if you think this thing wont sell check your news on June 29th alright buddy better yet go around to your local at&t wireless store and then go to your t-mobile store, maybe you’ll see a difference but you need to get out of here with your stupid comments on the iPhone. Peace wont be seein ya haha
I wouldn’t care if its locked or not. But the fact remains that there are people who travel internationally and don’t want to pay the outrageous roaming fees that AT&T tries to throw the word “value” into.
I must be able to switch from AT&T’s SIM to Globe or Smart Telecom’s SIMS or the phone is just useless. I will just wait till the right hack or an unlocked version is made available before I lay down even two-dollars-and-a-biscuit for this phone.
Sorry Apple……you again cease to amaze me……as always
[quote comment="4890"]I wouldn’t care if its locked or not. But the fact remains that there are people who travel internationally and don’t want to pay the outrageous roaming fees that AT&T tries to throw the word “value” into.
I must be able to switch from AT&T’s SIM to Globe or Smart Telecom’s SIMS or the phone is just useless. I will just wait till the right hack or an unlocked version is made available before I lay down even two-dollars-and-a-biscuit for this phone.
Sorry Apple……you again cease to amaze me……as always[/quote]
I remember back when at&t first released the new Treo 650. It was also locked to the network, then after a short period of time, they started providing unlock codes to account holders. They were also selling the smartphone at an outrageously higher price than a locked version.
I’m hoping at&t will do the same in this case if we all cry a little louder.
[quote comment="4891"][quote comment="4890"]I wouldn’t care if its locked or not. But the fact remains that there are people who travel internationally and don’t want to pay the outrageous roaming fees that AT&T tries to throw the word “value” into.
I must be able to switch from AT&T’s SIM to Globe or Smart Telecom’s SIMS or the phone is just useless. I will just wait till the right hack or an unlocked version is made available before I lay down even two-dollars-and-a-biscuit for this phone.
Sorry Apple……you again cease to amaze me……as always[/quote]
I remember back when at&t first released the new Treo 650. It was also locked to the network, then after a short period of time, they started providing unlock codes to account holders. They were also selling the smartphone at an outrageously higher price than a locked version.
I’m hoping at&t will do the same in this case if we all cry a little louder.[/quote]
Funny you say the outrageously higher price than a locked version, I just found a site last that says $1299, unlocked….coming soon.
I do have AT&T and I have talked to their customer support and she told me that Apple will not release unlock software for the IPhone. I don’t know how long that will hold up, seeing how all my phones were unlocked in 90 days into the contract.