Simplifying The Iphone 4 On T-Mobile Uk

So after a month of waiting and constantly refreshing the Apple Store order tracking website, I finally received my iPhone 4.

What a piece of hardware.
The design is amazing, the Retina display is even better than I thought it would be, the battery life is way longer than my previous 3G and the performance just rocks. Honestly, the reception issues are visible in the (buggy?) signal meter but I could not actually feel any performance degradation on both calls and data usage.

One thing though. The idea of cutting my SIM card to fit into the iPhone 4's micro sim card tray was not pleasant at all.
In an interconnected world, the idea of damaging my SIM and having to ask and wait for another one freaks me out.

As I could not find any example of a T-Mobile UK cut SIM card, here's my notes on how to cut your own sim mod(have a look at the pics in the bottom):

  1. Have a good look at the picture at the bottom of the article
  2. Place your SIM card so that the cut corner is on the top-left
  3. Observe the horizontal, parallel continuous lines on the SIM circuit
  4. Put the tray on top of the SIM card and align it so that the SIM circuit does not seem outside of the tray area
  5. While the tray is on top the SIM card, align it with the bottom of the card so that the circuit horizontal, parallel continuous lines appear inside the tray area
  6. With a sharp knife (I used a swiss army knife) and a ruler, mark a line at the right bit of the SIM card plastic 1mm after the circuit.
  7. Mark a line at the bottom of the card, very very close to the circuit
  8. Take a deep breath and with a scissor cut the SIM card along the marked lines
  9. Round the new (bottom-right) edge by cutting a very small bit of it
  10. Have a look at it, make sure it looks good enough to continue
  11. Mark a line at the top of the SIM card plastic, 1mm after the circuit
  12. Cut the the marked line with the scissor
  13. Round the new (top-right) edge by cutting a very small bit of it
  14. At this point, you can attempt to fit part of the card into the iPhone's tray
  15. Look at the SIM circuit inside the tray and observe if the horizontal parallel continuous circuit lines appear inside the tray
  16. If you need to adjust it, try to cut any excess plastic in the bottom of the card
  17. Once you managed to partially fit the SIM card into the tray, confirm, again that the horizontal parallel continuous circuit lines appear inside the tray
  18. Go ahead and mark a line in the left part of the SIM card, 1mm after the circuit
  19. Cut the edge of the top-left corner of the card, 1mm after the circuit
  20. At this point you can attempt to place it into the tray
  21. Should any adjustment be needed, just file the excess plastic and constantly attempt to fit it

iphone 4 sim mod 1

iphone 4 sim mod 2

This worked flawlessly for me.
The 'No SIM card installed' message immediately disappeared once I popped it into the iPhone.

Further reading:

G5 Powerbooks… Nope, Not Yet. It's Been A While Multi-Booting The Intel Mac The Obligatory Macbook Pro Post Isight Powerbooks/Ibooks ? 10 Reasons Why The Imac Sucks Stuff To Install On A New Mac Diff (15.4-Inch) Macbook Macbookpro Time Machine Over The Air The Joy Of (Mac)Vim To Serve Or Not To Serve The Bosee Remote Simplifying The Iphone 4 On T-Mobile Uk You Don't Have To Do That Interesting Iphone App Of The Day The Lusitanian's Online Guide To Their Home

Johan Bromander said(10 months ago)

It dident work :( my be different in sweden. i cut as close as i could by your descriptions. but i dosent work. guess i need to get a new sim now XD other wise thanks ;P

corro said(8 months, 2 weeks ago)

Oh sorry to hear that Johan! Good luck getting that new sim :)

Janessa Paten said(6 months ago)

Hey! I’ve just stopped by to say thanks for this awesome review. Take care!

Charlie Ponciano said(5 months, 3 weeks ago)

Hello dude! I fully agree with your thoughts. I’ve just shared it on the social networks.

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