Abner Stories

If you build it, they will hack it

Anyone can unlock a GSM phone!

Threat model for carriers: loss of control over client devices.

Granted the vast majority of users will never even remove the battery, but classically fraud has been the primary security focus of carriers - as opposed to trying to prevent denial of service attacks. Perhaps the real threat of unlocked phones comes in the form of increased support costs incurred when the user of an unapproved phone calls for support that customer service reps can't handle.