AT&T appears to be unlocking iPhones for deployed active duty military personnel

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A couple of days ago we got a tip from a reader who said he'd sent a letter to Tim Cook asking "for help to unlock my wife's iPhone, because she is active duty military deploying to Afghanistan this week. I wanted her to have an unlocked phone in Afghanistan, so that she can get a local SIM and use it. I had tried both AT&T and Apple customer care for it, but no use. The made me go round robin between two support centers."

Worse, our friend Yash was called by someone at Apple to explain that his unlock request was denied because the 4S was still under contract. Apparently he read later that day about unlocks happening for out-of-contract phones, and called again to unlock a 3GS. As luck would have it, the rep "also unlocked my wife's 4S because they now have a new policy to do so for active duty military getting deployed."

So after reading the rumors yesterday I decided to dive back into our reader email and dig up what appears to be proof that AT&T is indeed unlocking iPhones that would ordinarily be denied IF that phone belongs to an active duty military person who is being deployed. Of course, once you are deployed you'll still need service, but that's another story.

Thanks to Yashvind for sending this in!