Brazilians hack off iPhone 3G network lock

by Stevie Smith - Jul 18 2008, 12:08

Apple’s iPhone 3G handset posted sales figures of 1 million units in its opening three days at retail, thanks in-the-main to increased market saturation that successfully opened the revamped smartphone to some 22 different international regions.

While Brazil is presently not one of those regions, its techno-savvy residents are probably not overly phased by Apple’s launch snub -- especially as a Brazilian company has this week laid claim to being the first to have hacked the second-generation iPhone and unlocked it from requiring a contractual sign-on with exclusive carriers.

According to various online reports, the company in question, DesbloqueioBr, has unlocked the handset by adjusting the iPhone’s firmware and introducing a special card-based add-on to the internal SIM chip, which enables users located anywhere to sidestep carrier restrictions and connect to almost any available GSM network.

However, while the DesbloqueioBr workaround is likely to be a source of great temptation for all those Brazil-based Apple fans eager to secure a working iPhone 3G unit, it neither comes cheap nor without performance variables.

Specifically, press agency AFP reports that DesbloqueioBr expects to charge anywhere between $250 USD to $375 USD to unlock a single iPhone, while 25-year-old company founder Breno MacMasi has warned prospective hack users that connection quality can be unstable.

Perhaps more worrying for those Brazilians looking to jump aboard Apple’s hurtling trend wagon, is that the Cupertino-based computer and gadgetry giant will likely be able to stamp out the DesbloqueioBr hack via a forthcoming software update.

MacMasi is keen to deflect that particular concern. When talking with publication Folha Online about the iPhone 3G workaround, he confidently predicted that:

“Apple has made some big mistakes, so it’s certain that we will be able to come up with another hack.” He also offered that external software hacking and Apple’s internal fixing is “a game of cat and mouse.”

Apple Inc. has not yet issued any official comment regarding the emergence of Brazil’s iPhone 3G hack or how it will respond should the workaround prove genuine.

The YouTube video clip from DesbloqueioBr, which is posted below, would certainly suggest that it is.

Brazil is scheduled to officially take receipt of the high-speed iPhone 3G handset before the close of 2008.

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