UK firm working on iPhone unlocking software

UK firm working on iPhone unlocking software
7 July 2007 21:24 by Dela

John McLaughlin, founder of Uniquephones, has revealed that all of the company's software engineers are working around the clock to bypass iPhone restrictions that tie it to America's AT&T provider. The company said it is almost ready to release a beta of the unlocking software and claims the pre-release technology is already able to unlock 75% of all the iPhones it has tried using a code generated by the unit's IEMI number.

The resulting software will be sold by the company for about £50, far more than unlocking fees for other mobile handsets. Some days ago, Jon Lech Johansen (DVD Jon), the Norwegian hacker that is credited for the creation of DeCSS, found a way to unlock the multimedia and wifi capabilities of the phone without signing up to AT&T's service, just days after the iPhone release.

The U.S. Copyright Office confirmed last year that consumers are allowed to unlock their phones in order to use them with other carriers, although it is likely that AT&T and Apple will contest that decision if/when it comes down to it. Uniquephones said it's received more than 150,000 inquiries about unlocking iPhones and has even received a large number of IMEI codes already from owners.