[newzhunter]

An iPhone blogger has revealed a way of legally unlocking the device after paying off his mobile contract.

TheAppleBlog.com’s Olly Farshi claimed he legitimately unlocked his two-year-old iPhone 3G by taking advantage of what appears to be a European loophole.

He simply paid off a two-year contract with his carrier, Sonera. The Finland-based firm then forwarded the request to Apple and the next time Farshi synched with iTunes he was prompted to install an official carrier update.

“When upgrading to the iPhone 3GS, those same customers are given the option to pay off the remainder of their original 3G contract. Paying off the contract, and thus completing the two years prematurely, entitles the customer to have their iPhone 3G unlocked,” he wrote.

An official message popped up confirming that his “iPhone had been officially unlocked”.

Farshi described Sonera, which is the exclusive iPhone distributor in Finland, as a “less-repugnant version of AT&T”, before adding that the telco had “turned out to be a somewhat benevolent carrier”.

He claimed that “going the legit route was a much more painless process than using a proxy SIM or the Dev Team’s unofficial unlock”.

According to Farshi the unlock is permanent, allowing him to keep updating the iPhone’s OS, as well as being able to use any carrier SIM in the device.

Apple blogger legally unlocks iPhone • Register Hardware

[redpixy]

wohoo. so will singtel do that or will the patch be available to us?

[tensor]

huh? since when TAS allows locked mobile ah?

[port23]

Originally Posted by redpixy

wohoo. so will singtel do that or will the patch be available to us?

iPhones sold by SingTel are unlocked in the beginning.

[little_prince]

not completely true... your need a singtel sim card to unlock it the first time after which it remains unlocked.

[DoCoMo]

Originally Posted by little_prince

not completely true... your need a singtel sim card to unlock it the first time after which it remains unlocked.

Not true either. I unlock and activate mine using an M1 sim-card. Mine is delivered in shrink plastic wrapping and activated at home.

[little_prince]

whatever you say dude... i open more boxes of iphone than most. and i'm pretty sure of it =)

[DoCoMo]

Originally Posted by little_prince

whatever you say dude... i open more boxes of iphone than most. and i'm pretty sure of it =)

Dont be a loser. Local sets are unlocked by default. There's no way its could only be unlocked using a SingTel SIM card.