Why is it cheaper to unlock the AT&T iPhone

[90miles]

Hello people, I've been searching ebay for iPhone unlocks and I got to the point where it is fairly clear it is much cheaper to unlock the AT&T phones, anyone has any idea why? All thoughts are welcome =))

 

[Applejuiced]

Because there's hundreds or sellers that can unlock AT&T iphones.
The more competition the cheaper the prices will get just like with everything else.
There's thousands of AT&T employees that have access to enter IMEI's in their unlock database and some are taking advantage of it as you can see.

 

[90miles]

The attitude this employees are taking is pretty reckless and idiotic, if let's say, someone unlocks 100 phones in one day wouldn't AT&T people notice and investigate further ?

 

[Daveoc64]

The attitude this employees are taking is pretty reckless and idiotic, if let's say, someone unlocks 100 phones in one day wouldn't AT&T people notice and investigate further ?

Apparently not.

The amount of unauthorized unlocks that are happening seems to suggest that there's very little in place to prevent them.

 

[scaredpoet]

It's been happening for months now, so... evidently not!

Whether this is an indictment as to other lax security standards by AT&T, remains to be seen.

In the meantime, I'll enjoy my cheaply-unlocked iPhone 5.

 

[90miles]

Basically they are not losing money by letting their people unlock phones as most people that are locked to a two-year contract would not use their phones abroad if they had to pay the roaming fees and the enterprises that need the data, voice and messaging on the go have already negotiated better roaming fees and AT&T is still making money out of this power-users, maybe that is their mindset.