WASHINGTON, Aug 25: A 17-year old student has unlocked Apple Computer’s iconic iPhone and put his methods on the internet to educate others.

AT&T, which is the sole provider of iPhones in the United States, pays millions of dollars to Apple Computer to retain its exclusive rights.

“This was about opening up the device for everyone,” George Hotz of Glen Rock, New Jersey, told reporters after unlocking the phone. Hotz took 500-odd hours (an entire summer) trying to free the iPhone from AT&T’s control. Telephone carriers in the United States seek to keep their customers in two ways: forcing them to sign multiyear contracts and putting complex technological locks on phones to ensure that they run only on a given carrier’s wireless network. Without the locks, the phones could be used on rival networks that use the same underlying technology.

Hotz posted the hack on his blog this week. Experts say that this could lead to the mushrooming of an entire industry devoted to buying of iPhones, unlocking them, and selling them to people who don’t have or don’t want the AT&T service. ‘

However, the hack is complicated and requires skill with soldering and software. Any mistake could render the iPhone useless. Hotz, who said he collaborated online with a large number of people to develop the unlocking process, put up his unlocked iPhone for sale on eBay on Thursday. The highest bid reportedly was $12,600 late Friday. The 4GB iPhone model actually sells for $499.