Posts
NTC: AT&T complaint needed vs iPhone SIM 'hacking'
"When a SIM is unlocked and cloned, that is illegal. But we are talking of individual SIMs you paid for. If someone hacks into your SIM to unlock it, that's wrong," said NTC Deputy Commissioner Jorge Sarmiento, in a telephone interview.
"Strictly speaking, it is wrong, but unless AT&T complains, we cannot act on this," he added.
Apple iPhone users in the Philippines can now access a local mobile network without using a roaming arrangement with AT&T.
This was after a certain forum user "Dubeditions" posted a photo and a short entry in a website forum indicating that he had found a way to unlock the iPhone and make it work on the network of Globe Telecom, a local telecommunications firm.
Froilan Castelo, vice president and head of Globe Telecom's regulatory affairs, said "I don't know about this. But we don't condone hacking. NTC has rules declaring illegal the unlocking of cellphones."
In a post dated August 15, 2007, Dubeditions revealed to members of the Philippine Macintosh Users Group (PhilMUG)'s forum that he had cloned the iPhone's subscriber identity module (SIM).
The Apple iPhone, which combines a mobile phone with the company's iconic iPod music player, has not yet been released in Southeast Asia. iPhones in the US are exclusively available on AT&T's mobile network.
"If you read closely, the original poster mentioned supersim. This means he is claiming to use methods (recently posted around the Internet) which involve writing data onto a blank 'supersim' sim card to unlock the iPhone's full network capabilities," PhilMUG subscriber Danieldy further explained in the forum.
In the same forum, Dubeditions confirmed Danieldy's short explanation.
Another post from a PhilMUG member Cyberprince in the forum explained that Dubeditions was able to extract information from both the AT&T and the old Globe SIMs, and then combine them in a new card.
source: Philippine Daily Inquirer
0 comments:
Post a Comment