iPhone Unlock

Beginning Sunday, April 8, qualifying customers will be able to request a carrier unlock from AT&T. iPhone users who wish to unlock their iPhones must have their AT&T accounts in order, and not be associated with a current and active term commitment with the carrier.

Unlocked iPhones allow users to replace AT&T's micro-SIM with other compatible network cards. This is a great option for people who frequently travel, and would like to use international or other local carriers. An AT&T spokeswoman confirmed the news with Engadget. Read on for their official statement.

A few hardware unlock solutions for the iPhone 4S have appeared this month, but Gevey has released a Verizon and Sprint unlocking solution. The Gevey Ultra S claims to unlock both GSM and CDMA, unlike the R-SIM and TP-SIM which do not work with Sprint models.

The new SIM interposer requires that your iPhone be jailbroken, not be running iOS 5.1 or higher and is on one of the following basebands: 1.0.11, 1.0.13, 1.0.14. This is also the only known solution for Sprint handsets. The Gevey Ultra S is $60 and will be available at the end of this month.

Another hardware unlock solution has appeared, the R-SIM from Each Supplier. This SIM interposer works with the iPhone 4S running iOS 5 or iOS 5.0.1 making it possible to use the device on any compatible GSM carrier network.

iPhone Dev-Team has not made recent announcements regarding updates to ultrasn0w, the software unlock solution for jailbreakers. One advantage of the R-SIM is that the product does not require a jailbroken iPhone to unlock the device.

A newly discovered Apple patent filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office outlines a new method for iPhone users to determine carrier rankings.

The filing, submitted in April of last year, and discovered by Apple Insider this week, would allow iPhone owners to search for competing carriers and service plans directly on their phones. In 2010, Apple was rumored to be working on an embedded SIM iPhone service that would allow users to shop for a plan on their device, instead of dealing directly with the carriers. This angered European carriers who threatened to cut subsidies if Apple went ahead with their plan.

UPDATE (2/14/2011): A jailbreak (not unlock) for Verizon iPhones running iOS 4.2.6 is now available. Click the following link to learn about how to jailbreak the Verizon iPhone.

Since Verizon's iPhone 4 launch announcement yesterday, the web has been rife with speculation on how soon we'll see the Verizon iPhone 4 jailbroken and unlocked. Will the iPhone Dev Team focus on the CDMA iPhone unlock, or just the jailbreak of iOS 4.2.5? If an unlock does become available for the Verizon iPhone, will Sprint embrace the CDMA iPhone? Some say it will happen, some say it won't. Except there's only one problem ... the CDMA / Verizon iPhone 4 isn't locked in the first place. Why? Because CDMA phones aren't locked.