Jul 20, 2011 20:21 GMT  ·  By

We already knew that third-party unlocking was on its way to Windows Phone, but specific info on the costs it would involve were not available until now.

We are referring, of course, to the ChevronWP7 Labs unlocking tool that Microsoft themselves approved a while ago, and which should soon be put in place for Windows Phone developers out there.

The price for being able to unlock a Windows Phone would be a small one, at only $9, compared to what Microsoft is asking for it, namely $100.

What ChevronWP7 Labs is all about includes the possibility for developers to unlock a Windows Phone even if in an unsupported country.

The main goal behind this initiative was to offer support for the development of homebrew applications, and not to support hacking.

While unveiling the price for unlocking devices with ChevronWP7 Labs, Chris Walsh, one of the developers behind the project, also noted that they do not encourage piracy.

As stated above, this is all part of an approved Windows Phone unlocking service which was included in ChevronWP7 Labs.

“As you may remember, one of our goals was to make Windows Phone development more accessible. Plans have recently solidified and we can now reveal a solution we’ve been working on,” the Chevron team explained when announcing the ChevronWP7 Labs.

One thing that should be noted here is that the unlocking solution won't enable users to access unsupported APIs on their devices. The editing of registry is not supported either, it seems.

The new service was put in place after the release of an unofficial unlocking tool for Windows Phone devices out there.

The tool was not as effective as the developers behind it hoped it would be, as devices were set to re-lock after a certain period of time. Unlike the service, the initial application was made available for free.