3G iPhone Baseband violated, T-Mobile (and others) users pee themselves a little

It isn’t ready for those whopping 12 markets where T-mobile has 3G yet, but it is growing ever closer as the the Dev Team is now knee deep in Baseband noodling. We expected a full Baseband neutering in weeks, not months.  Time to call your buddies in Hong Kong.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2069634&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

How about you Vodaphone users in the UK?  You are a little excited, admit it.

OK, for the noobs out there…the iPhone is tied to a network because there is a lock on the baseband in the 3G iPhone.  In the original iPhone this was hacked which allowed the iPhone to be distributed throughout the world and contributed to its success.  Most people think about 1/3 of the original 6 million iPhones (now probably more) were distributed through this means.

Until now, the 3G iPhone’s baseband hasn’t been able to be hacked because of increased security measures by Apple.  Now it looks like those will be circumvented as well.

This may not be as big a deal as last time however because you have to buy the iPhone with a plan in most instances AND it is available in many more global markets which will eliminate a lot of the demand. 

It will still be nice to be able to plop another SIM into our iPhones when we go overseas (like before ;)