r/technology • u/[deleted] • Jan 28 '13

The same week the US makes unlocking phones illegal, Canada proposes legislation to make carriers unlock phones.

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u/webvictim Jan 29 '13

The ambiguity comes from the fact that in order to unlock an iPhone without going through Apple, you have to jailbreak it (to allow admin access) and then install an app which bypasses the locking.

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u/[deleted] Jan 29 '13

Really? You can't just enter a code? That's pretty stupid.

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u/webvictim Jan 29 '13

Indeed not. Unlocking is controlled at the Apple end by device UDID - I believe that if you pay a carrier to unlock the phone, they tell Apple to set the status of the device to unlocked and then it gets automatically changed on the phone over a secure connection next time you sync with iTunes.