iPhone locked to AT&T forever?

Now that the iPhone is about to celebrate its 2nd birthday, what’s gonna happen to all of the original iPhone buyers (like me)?

Here’s my point…

Most of the people that bought the 1st iPhone on June 30, 2007 and agreed to the 2-year AT&T contract will now be at the end of this term – which means (presumably) that AT&T could unlock the phones from the AT&T network at the customer’s request – AND – said customer should be allowed to go with whatever pay-as-you-go/sim-card solution they prefer (obviously, minus the visual voicemail features).

Wouldn’t this be a correct assumption?

Because if the “coulds” and “shoulds” mentioned above are not true, and this option is not going to be available, then the 2-yr. AT&T contract is really a LIFETIME contract. (One they really didn’t tell you about two years ago.)

I can’t believe there aren’t more articles like this one cropping up with WWDC being only a week away and the 2-year anniversary of iPhone four weeks away.

This is an issue that Apple and AT&T need to address. Some people would like to have their freedom with a “legitimately” unlocked iPhone (vs. jailbreaking). After all, we early adopters did pay $500 to $600 for our phones – very similar to the the high price tag iPhones fetch in countries that sell unlocked versions.

If anyone knows something I don’t know, sound off in the comments below…

May 31, 2009 | Filed Under Culture, Opinion, iPhone