While the wizards are still working on a software-only complete unlock for the iPhone, hackers in Europe claim that they have completely unlocked the JesusPhone, allegedly using a SIM reader/writer and a blank SIM card to obtain full calling and SMS capabilities. Total cost: $96. Read on for the details.

While we haven't been able to test this ourselves—our SIM card reader and blank SIM cards are now on transit and should be here tomorrow— a Hackintosh forum member has been able to test the hack in the Orange UK network.

Just tested it - works fine with Orange UK - Call In/Out, SMS In/Out. Great job to everyone who made this possible (specially to the guy that edited the Hex file).

I used the subscriber ICCID, so maybe is best to edit the tutorial - activation should
be the last step.

My thoughts on safety of using this: If so called 'Total Unlock' is released, it will be
probably patching of the baseband firmware to do a similar thing. So no worry about
alerting the network, the trick seems to fool only the good/bad guy check in the
baseband firmware.

While the other software-based solution will be free, if the SIM forgery works those $96 seems like a very low price to buy an iPhone and have it working in your network. Even more when the Infinity USB Unlimited only costs $88+shipping and its cost can be shared about many people. The blank SIM cards only cost $8.27+shipping.

We will publish our results as soon as we get our new gear. [Hackintosh Forums]

Send an email to Jesus Diaz, the author of this post, at jesus@gizmodo.com.