Unlocked iPhone 3G: the plot deepens!

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 17 June 2008 13:10

Business IT - Technology

Yesterday's news that a small retailer was quoting a price for the iPhone 3G ahead of any announcements from Apple's Australian partners Optus and Vodafone generated a lot of interest. Who will be first, worldwide, to sell an unlocked iPhone 3G?

We promised to pass on any information we could get from the retailer concerned or from Apple Australia, but neither have been forthcoming.

The email we sent Linelink Data Communications hadn't been answered, so we tried calling again. Once again, all we got was a recorded message. It was a different recording to the one we heard yesterday, but a recording nevertheless.

We thought that if Linelink was an authorised Apple reseller it would have said so prominently on its web site, but just in case we also asked Apple Australia. All we got in reply was the cryptic "We have no details."

Funnily enough, that’s not a 'yes, but it's not a 'no' either, so we did some digging in public records to see what we could unlock... er... uncover!

A 'whois' search didn't reveal anything of interest: the linelink.com.au is registered to Linelink Data Communications, with what appears to be a representative of a hosting company as the contact (not that there's anything suspicious about that - it's a common enough practice).

So what did we find? Please turn to page 2.