Apple Finland Officially Unlocks One Lucky Blogger’s iPhone
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?
BTW: It is possible to buy factory unlocked iPhones for $1,000+.
Leander Kahney is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: 
