Independent Online International
VILNIUS, Lithuania — A Lithuanian website is offering to unlock California-based Apple's new iPhone for use with local mobile service providers, says Baltic News Service.
The hotly awaited mobile phone has not officially been released outside the United States, where they are tied by contract to the AT&T wireless network.
The site, iphone.projectas.in, claims to have unlocked two iPhones in Lithuania.
It features a video clip without sound showing the iPhones operating on Lithuanian mobile networks, including Omnitel, Bite Lietuva and TELE2.
The site's authors are also offering to unlock iPhones for 260 euros (355 dollars).
There are three methods of making the iPhone operational in Lithuania, the site claims: by subscriber identity module (SIM) card cloning, phone modification, or by installing a SIM card add-on.
The SIM card is a postage stamp-sized removable smart card for mobile phones that can be moved from one phone to another.
"The third method of unlocking is more promising. Any SIM card will go for that. An original card is inserted together with a special SIM card add-on," the website says.
AT&T has a long-term contract with Apple to be the exclusive U.S. wireless carrier for the phone, frustrating iPhone users who want to have the option of using another carrier's service.
Recently, 17-year-old George Hotz made international headlines when he unlocked the phone through software and hardware modifications, including soldering.
However, most observers agree that not many users would want to tinker with such an expensive device this way: the iPhone costs 500-600 dollars from Apple's online store, with AT&T monthly plans from 60 dollars.
As soon as the new device hit U.S. stores on June 29, the race to unlock the iPhone code was on.
A company called iPhoneSimFree.com claimed to have the first software-only unlocking method, showing it to a credible third party, according to an editor of tech blog Engadget.com.
UniquePhones based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, claimed it had cracked the code that locked iPhone into AT&T's network.
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