Unlock the iPhone

While initially iPhones were only sold on the AT&T network with a Simlock in place various hackers have found methods to unlock the phone, more recently some carriers have started to sell unlocked iPhones. More than a quarter of iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and "unlocked".

On November 21, 2007, T-Mobile in Germany announced it would sell the phone "unlocked" and without a T-Mobile contract, caused by a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile put in place by their competitor Vodafone. In Germany, a company is not allowed to lock the SIM card to itself. On December 4, 2007, a German court decided to grant T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone with the SIM card locked, overturning the temporary injunction. In addition, T-Mobile will unlock the iPhone at the termination of a customer's contract.

The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone's other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.