How long is Cingular/AT&T Wireless the exclusive iPhone carrier in the US?

As noted in the press release promoting the agreement, Apple entered into a "multi-year partnership" for Cingular -- later rebranded again as "Wireless from AT&T" -- to exclusively provide cellular voice and data services for the iPhone.

Steve Jobs explains that this is because Cingular is the "best and most popular carrier in the US". Cingular certainly is the largest carrier in the United States, but no doubt some readers would debate whether or not Cingular really is the "best".

No official information regarding the precise length of the contract is available, but given that upon its introduction the iPhone was reported to require a two year contract with Cingular for service -- although more recently, bloggers have been speculating that prepaid service may be available as well -- it is a safe bet that the contract is for at least two years from June 2006 in the United States. However, CNN reported that the contract is "through 2009" and USA Today reports that it is for "five years".

An article in the New York Times also says that if you want to use the iPhone on another carrier like T-Mobile, "you'll be waiting a long time, my friend".

Additionally, the New York Times article quotes Glenn Lurie, "Cingular's president of national distribution" stating that "the [multi-year] agreement also includes future models which will be introduced 'soon.'"

Can you purchase the iPhone "unlocked"?

Although upon it's introduction on January 9, 2007, some were optimistic that the iPhone would be available "unlocked" through gray market channels in the United States at a premium, Cingular's Glenn Lurie says that "we've thought through what our next steps will be", promising retaliation against those who unlock the iPhone.

In a thoroughly useless corporate non-response to this question, on June 26, 2007, Apple added:

AT&T is the exclusive wireless carrier for iPhone in the United States. If you currently use another wireless carrier, you can choose to transfer your number when you activate your AT&T account.

In the original iPhone Q&A published on February 5, 2007, EveryiPod.com noted:

It is a safe assumption that creative hackers will unlock the iPhone eventually regardless of Cingular's plans, but neither Apple nor Cingular have any plans to offer the iPhone unlocked at this time.

As expected, as spotted by Gizmodo, on July 18, 2007, hardworking hackers at the iPhone Dev Wiki managed to partially unlock the iPhone and released a program called IASign for others to do so. Other hackers subsequently managed to completely unlock the iPhone using hardware and software methods on August 24, 2007, and on September 11, 2007, the original iPhone Dev Wiki team released a free software unlock with a GUI version a few days later.

Apple was not pleased by these unlocking methods, warned that future updates would disable the software on September 24, 2007, and sure enough, released a software update that disabled unlocked phones by the end of the week. The iPhone Dev Wiki team found a way around this, Apple broke this method as well, and no doubt the cycle will continue indefinitely. On December 8, 2007, the iPhone Dev Wiki even open sourced the unlocking software so that the community could continue to upgrade and improve it.

As Apple was required to offer the original iPhone unlocked in France, EveryiPod.com was hopeful that it would become easier and easier for those who don't mind either paying a premium or getting their hands a bit dirty to use the iPhone with a carrier or contract different from the one that Apple and the mobile service providers intend, and indeed, the original iPhone spread around the world and was used on any number of carriers.

For the iPhone 3G, AT&T has become much more draconian, requiring those that buy an iPhone in the US to activate it before leaving a physical Apple or AT&T store or at least sign a contract immediately -- online purchase is no longer available -- but those outside of the US likely will have more options.