Telstra to unlock its iPhones for free

Telstra has announced it would relinquish network-locking control over its iPhone customers, allowing them to buy and use another carrier's SIM cards when they are overseas.

The telco said today it would still lock the phones but no longer charge a fee for customers to unlock them from the Next G network.

"All iPhones purchased from Telstra are locked to the Telstra mobile phone network and as a default will only work with a Telstra SIM card. This will still be the case," Telstra's head of online relations Kristen Boschma said in a blog post.

"Many of you have told us that when you travel overseas you would like the ability to put a local operator’s SIM into your iPhone. However the network lock prevents you from doing this.

"We’re now removing the fee to unlock your handset to give you the freedom to change the SIM in your iPhone when you travel overseas."

Telstra said customers that wanted to take advantage of the free unlock should contact the telco directly.