The iPhone's baseband radio's firmware is locked to only work with SIM cards with IMSI numbers starting with the digits 310410, i.e. Mobile Country Code = US* and Mobile Network Code = AT&T.
According to the iPhone Dev Wiki the radio firmware can be unlocked with the AT command:
'AT+CLCK="PN",0,"xxxxxxxx"'
where xxxxxxxx is a number specific to each iPhone. I suspect - although the wiki does not say so – that the "specificity" is based on the unique IMEI number that every GSM phone has, including the iPhone.
The x's are the NCK (Network Control Key). Brute-force can't be used most notably because "there is a limit of 3-10 unlock attempts per phone, after which the firmware will "hard-lock" itself to AT&T".
Of course someone at Apple or AT&T holds the cryptographic key to calculate the NCKs. If you are buying your iPhone in France Apple or AT&T will be legally obliged to use that key to calculate a NCK based on your iPhones IMEI.
(*) the US actually has 7 country codes: 310, 311, 312, 313, 314 and 316. I wonder what the story behind that is?
2 comments:
man thanx for this information...
kindly post the way to unlock it as soon as possible...
want to use it outside u.s.
thanking you in anticipation
yea thanks a bunch man, i just bought my iphone and we have no carrier that support. I need to unlock it so i can use with existing cell phone carrier.
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