Apple Finland Officially Unlocks One Lucky Blogger’s iPhone

Leander Kahney ()

official_iphone_3g_unlock

Apple in Europe may unlock your iPhone if you have pay off your carrier contract, one blogger has discovered.

Olly Farshi of TheAppleBlog.com didn’t have to jailbreak or run ultrasn0w to unlock his iPhone.

He simply asked his carrier to unlock his iPhone 3G after paying off a two year contract. The carrier, Finland’s Sonera, submitted the request to Apple and the next time Farshi synced with iTunes, the software had him install an official carrier update.

Then iTunes displayed something rarely seen: an official message saying his iPhone had been officially unlocked. See the screenshot above.

“Regarding Sonera, think of it as a less-repugnant version of AT&T,” Farshi writes. “As the exclusive distributor of the iPhone over in Finland, Sonera has turned out to be a somewhat benevolent carrier.”

He continues: “Going the legit route was a much more painless process than using a proxy SIM or the Dev Team’s unofficial unlock. Also worth noting is that, unlike some of the illicit approaches, this unlock is permanent: I’ll be able to keep updating the iPhone’s OS without losing the ability to use any carrier SIM in the device.”

No word on whether AT&T will do this. Has anyone tried?

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BTW: It is possible to buy factory unlocked iPhones for $1,000+.

Via Modmyi.com.

11 comments »

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, iPhone, News |

  • Blütnerd

    This has been possible since they started selling iPhones in Europe. Some contries require a carrier to unlock a handset when the customer finishes his contract. I worked for the local carrier when the iPhone 3G was released, and a lot of people bought the phone, paid the earliy termination fee and started using the phone on another carrier.
    Hell, I had my own iPhone unlocked when I left my job at that carrier the same way as described here. Didn’t get that message, though.

  • Peter Moon

    This is common practice in France. French consumer laws oblige any carrier that sells locked phones to unlock them upon customer request 6 months after purchase.

    While the French law only specifies that the phone must be unlocked so as to work with any and all FRENCH carriers, in actuality the vast majority of unlock procedures for phones unlock them to work with and all carriers in any country. This was certainly the case when I unlocked my original iPhone. I am in the process of unlocking my 3GS iPhone as we speak. The carriers make the process difficult and drag their heels, but if you keep on insisting, it does get done.

  • Peter Moon

    Whoops, sorry. I meant 3G iPhone, not 3GS. I’ve had the 3G for 9 months, and only bought the 3GS last week. Chronic shortages of the 32gig model.

  • MMNW

    Actually this is common practice in many countries. Apple is often legally bound to unlock the phones. But there’s no common law in europe, it seems to vary from country to country.
    The binding btw is not only with Apple, it’s a common practice among carriers. The technique is usually called “Sim Lock”. If you look it up on wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIM_lock) you will actually find information about the legal status of SIM Locking in different countries.
    It states there, that in Finland SIM locking actually is illegal. But there has been an exception for 3G phones (to ease introduction). The exception included the carrier to unlock the phone after the contract expires, free of charge.
    There are similar laws in other countries, also the legal status varies throughout europe and the world. Just look it up.

  • Sam

    Factory unlocked iPhones 3GSs are $879 (16GB), $1049 (32GB), and $719 for the 8GB iPhone3G Australian – That’s $732, $875, and $599 US respectively – Hardly $1000+

    http://store.apple.com/au/browse/home/shop_iphone/family/iphone?mco=MTE2OTU

  • alexandre M

    Hello,
    I france, with Orange you can ask for unlock after 6 months of contract for free or before that for a 100€

  • http://www.visgoria.com Zac

    This happens all the time in Australia.. where we now have 6 carriers selling the iPhone.

    The lucky country? Probably.

  • peter

    In Australia, this is also a common practice. You just need to contact your carrier. Since your locked into a contract (in my case 24 months) the carrier does not really care, once you have signed the dotted line. It’s also likely that the Trade Practice laws in australia are mixed up in this as well.

  • Not that complicated really

    You can simply buy unlocked iPhones is a couple of European countries where the local law mandates it. They are more expensive, of course, but you can then use the phone with any SIM card in other countries as well. The phone even switches to your local language during the first sync with iTunes and you get all the official software updates from Apple etc.

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    ,..] http://www.cultofmac.com is one another interesting source on this subject,..]

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