ATT officially unlocking iPhones at last

AT&T confirmed with Electronista Friday that it will start unlocking iPhones. As of April 8, customers that are either out of contract or bought contract-free will have the option of derestricting the phone's SIM slot much like the already-unlocked iPhones sold at Apple retail stores. The only other condition was to have a healthy account.

"Beginning Sunday, April 8, we will offer qualifying customers the ability to unlock their AT&T iPhones," a spokesman said. "The only requirements are that a customer’s account must be in good standing, their device cannot be associated with a current and active term commitment on an AT&T customer account, and they need to have fulfilled their contract term, upgraded under one of our upgrade policies or paid an early termination fee."

The initiative follows a number of complaints that led to Apple's Tim Cook taking action and arranging for a handful of case-by-case unlocks. Other carriers worldwide have been offering after-sale iPhone unlocks, most notably in Canada, but AT&T until now has declined to do it, even for customers who paid the unsubsidized price.

More incentive exists for AT&T to unlock phones now that its spectrum refarming gives a real chance that its 3G network, and future 4G LTE network, will work properly with existing iPhones. A SIM unlock was previously only useful for those either willing to limit themselves to 2G data or who were traveling and wanted a much less expensive local SIM card instead of AT&T's roaming plans. [original leak via Engadget]

By Electronista Staff

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iPhone, industry, AT&T, mobile phones, Apple