A Brazilian company is claiming to be the first to have found a way to unlock Apple's new iPhone 3G, getting around restrictions that require users to sign up for calling plans with exclusive carriers, reports said yesterday.

The website of Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo and various online sites said the firm DesbloqueioBr hacked the phone by altering its firmware and by adding a special card add-on to the SIM chip.

The results allow iPhone users to connect to any carrier, not just the one that has an exclusive arrangement with Apple in each country where the phones are sold.

In Brazil, where the slick handsets have already become a must-have item for the wealthy, the iPhone is not yet officially available.

The Brazilian hack doesn't come cheap, however. DesbloqueioBr plans to charge between $250 and $375 to unlock an iPhone, which itself costs around $200 in its basic eight-gigabyte version.

But there are some problems with the Brazilian fix. One of the company's partners, Breno MacMasi, admitted that the quality of the connection for the phone can vary. Apple can also wipe out the hack with a software update. But MacMasi predicted that there would always be ways to circumvent the locks.