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Teen Unlocks iPhone From AT&T Network

By PETER SVENSSON,

Posted: 2007-08-24 19:04:13

NEW YORK (Aug. 24) - Armed with a soldering iron and a large supply of energy drinks, a slight, curly haired teenager has developed a way to make the iPhone, arguably the gadget of the year, available to a much wider audience.

George Hotz of Glen Rock, N.J., spent his last summer before college figuring out how to "unlock" the iPhone, freeing it from being restricted to a single carrier, AT&T Inc.

The procedure, which the 17-year-old posted on his blog Thursday, raises the possibility of a cottage industry springing up to buy iPhones, unlocking them and then selling them to people who don't want AT&T service or can't get it, particularly overseas.

The phone, which combines an innovative touch-screen interface with the media-playing abilities of the iPod, is currently sold only in the U.S.

An AP reporter was able to verify that an iPhone Hotz brought to the AP's headquarters on Friday was unlocked. Hotz placed the reporter's T-Mobile SIM card, a small chip that identifies a phone to the network, in the iPhone. It then connected to T-Mobile's network and placed calls using the reporter's account.

T-Mobile is the only major U.S. carrier apart from AT&T that is compatible with the iPhone's cellular technology, but smaller carriers also use the technology, known as GSM. In Europe and Asia, GSM is the dominant network technology.

The hack is complicated and requires skill with both soldering and software, and missteps may result in the iPhone becoming useless, so few people will be able to follow the instructions.

"But that's the simplest I could make them," Hotz said. The next step, he said, would be for someone to develop a way to unlock the phone using only software.

AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel and Apple spokeswoman Jennifer Bowcock said their companies had no comment. Hotz said the companies had not been in touch with him.

Apple shares rose $4.23, or 3.2 percent, to close at $135.30 on Friday. AT&T shares gained 26 cents, or 0.7 percent, to close at $40.36.

The iPhone has already been made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the SIM chip, or Subscriber Identity Module.

The SIM-chip method does not involve any soldering, but does require special equipment, and it doesn't unlock the phone - each new SIM chip has to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone.

Both hacks leave intact the iPhone's many functions, including a built-in camera and the ability to access Wi-Fi networks. The only thing that won't work is the "visual voicemail" feature, which lists voice messages as if they were incoming e-mail.

Since the details of both hacks are public, Apple may be able to modify the iPhone production line to make new phones invulnerable.

Analysts said it's unlikely Apple would overhaul the iPhone's wiring to thwart the new hack because the difficulty of the procedure is likely to keep it confined to hardcore hobbyists.

"I'm having a hard time figuring out where the real pain is going to come from in this," said David Chamberlain, principal analyst with market researcher In-Stat who follows mobile devices and services. "Just selling the piece of hardware, they've made a nice profit off that."

Apple has said it plans to introduce the phone in Europe this year, but it hasn't set a date or identified carriers.

There is apparently no U.S. law against unlocking cell phones. Last year, the Library of Congress specifically excluded cell-phone unlocking from coverage under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Among other things, the law has been used to prosecute people who modify game consoles to play a wider variety of games.

Hotz collaborated online with a large number of people to develop the unlocking process. Of smaller core group, two were in Russia.

"Then there are two guys who I think are somewhere U.S.-side," Hotz said. He knows them only by their online handles.

Hotz himself spent about 500 hours on the project since the iPhone went on sale. On Thursday, he put the unlocked iPhone up for sale on eBay, where the high bid was at $12,600 late Friday. The model, with 4 gigabytes of memory, sells for $499 new.

"Some of my friends think I wasted my summer but I think it was worth it," he told The Record of Bergen County, which reported Hotz's hack Friday.

Hotz heads for college on Saturday. He plans to major in neuroscience - or "hacking the brain" as he puts it - at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Associated Press Writer Jordan Robertson in San Francisco contributed to this story.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

2007-08-24 15:43:52

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904 comments

Swanman1988 02:11:43 PM Sep 09 2007

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brilliant. i should try to develop that talent myself...

MxGuy136 03:54:43 PM Sep 05 2007

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Seriously, Thats way better than having a crappy phone company.
Plus people should just get lives and quit bitching about some kid hacking into an iPhone.
how about we talk about more important issues and stop killing ourselves over how pissed off you are.
Its not like he hacked into someone else's phone.
It was probably his.

Mtmikeh 06:06:00 PM Sep 04 2007

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this is the kind of innovative thinking that has made America,well...America!

DFortun81 02:30:00 AM Sep 03 2007

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Oh quit whining. Hacking is not illegal unless it is used maliciously. How exactly would you call this malicious? Is expanding an expensive phone to a different company such a bad thing? It's called innovation. Deal with it.

Achmedshatz 12:43:39 AM Aug 29 2007

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i think its more american to be more efficient..learn from the europeans and asians! so what he cracked it, now apple knows next time to figure out a better way of making their products exclusive. im sure apple doesnt mind that it was cracked, thats more sales for them, att just loses their exclusiveness

Mikrebberbia 01:53:25 AM Aug 28 2007

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We live in a in a society of no American morals. A company offers a exclusive product that is for sale. We as consumers find a need to buy an exclusive need. We pay for it with hard earned money. Then some body comes along and breaks the code of ethics. This is corrupting and just plain wrong. Why do we destroy ourselves. It's unamerican. Why can't hackers spend their time and energy on hacking on our nation's enemies. Now theres an American challenge...

CPerrin720 06:07:51 PM Aug 27 2007

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Mhannon - because what he did is not illegal. He is not a hacker since it was not software related, this kid just souped up his iphone. If I decided I wanted to put a Ford Engine in my Audi should I be prosecuted? Is that the type of world you want to live in? Are you that conservative? If I have the mental power to pull it off and make it work that is hardly illegal. This kid should be praised not prosecuted. You should stop viewing the glass half empty or half full. The kid is a genius and most likely will be working for Apple soon.

pblmcld40 02:35:00 PM Aug 27 2007

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Nice job, now hack Bin Ladens phone for the goverment so we can find him and kill him""""""""""""

pblmcld40 02:35:00 PM Aug 27 2007

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Nice job, now hack Bin Ladens phone for the goverment so we can find him and kill him""""""""""""

mhannon5 01:38:14 PM Aug 27 2007

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Why is this kds action not illegal. It seems like "hostile interference". It's clear that the phone was designed to work with only one carrier. It does that unless somebody modifies a patiented device. At the very least if seems to lack integrity yet this hacker is getting all kinds of positive recognition and now I understand he recieved a car.
He's a hacker and that activity should be illegal.
Michael

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904 comments