Freeing the iPhone from AT&T

August 26, 2007 | Matt Marshall

If there’s one thing tech aficionados dislike about the iPhone, it’s the slow cellular service provided by its carrier partner AT&T.

So 17-year-old George Hotz worked through the summer to hack the iPhone, successfully converting it to use another network: T-Mobile. He’s since published details online about how to do it. Mercury News story here.

Meanwhile, another group, called iPhoneSimFree, said Friday it will sell software to people wanting to unlock iPhones in large quantities. This follows a move by a Czech company called Bladox, which two weeks ago to started selling a $80 device called a Turbo SIM, that lets the iPhone run on another network. The company has reportedly been overwhelmed by orders, according to the New York Times. None of this is sanctioned by Apple or AT&T, of course. It shows that people want choice.

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Tags: iPhone

About the Author, Matt Marshall

Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.