Unlocked iPhone On Australian Network
Australians are thumbing their noses at Apple’s 2008 launch date for the iPhone, importing the device from the US and hacking it to work on local networks.
The hacks, unveiled just over a month ago and extensively documented online, break the locks that were intended to restrict iPhone use to the AT&T network in the United States.
According to one member of a group of Australians who have been collaborating on a hack, there are at least 30 or 40 people in Australia who are running the Apple phones using local SIM cards issued by carriers such as Telstra and Optus.
“The genie’s definitely out of the bottle,” said the man, who did not wish to be named. “We’re getting reports of people using them all over the place.”
Alex Voevodin, general manager of Votech, the exclusive Australian reseller of TurboSIM, a $149 tool that is essential in conducting one of the iPhone unlocking methods, said he had to shut down his online store late last month after being inundated with orders.
He said over 1500 orders were received in four days, many of which remained unfulfilled as Voevodin waited on a new TurboSIM shipment from the manufacturer, Bladox, which is expected to arrive early next week.
Voevodin said he sold less than 100 units a year before the TurboSIM iPhone unlocking was unveiled.
“I’m getting hundreds of emails a day from people who want to be on the TurboSIM waiting list,” he said.
And not all of the iPhone hackers are motivated by the desire to be among the first in Australia to own the device. Australian eBay users began listing unlocked iPhones on eBay last week, one of which sold yesterday for $1700.
In the US, the iPhone comes in two models which retail for $US499 and $US599.
Using TurboSIM to unlock the device is just one of several methods - a similar tool, Super SIM, has been used by the loosely knit group of Australian hackers to achieve the same result.
Both TurboSIM and Super SIM trick the phone into thinking it is operating on an AT&T SIM card using a technique called SIM cloning.
However, using Super SIM to unlock the iPhone is more complicated than using TurboSIM, and Super SIM does not work with SIM cards bought within the last three or four years.
The Australian hacker said that all the phone functions were working as they should except for two features: visual messaging and the YouTube channel.
The iPhone is currently only sold in the US where it was launched at the end of June. Apple has struck a multi-year deal to give exclusive rights to the carrier AT&T.
From http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/code-crack-opens-the-iphone-floodgates/2007/09/04/1188783213914.html