iPad Modding Mini Sim Card to Micro Sim Card

8CoreWhore said:

Looking at the included picture, it seems one could carefully use an exacto knife to trim down their iPhone's sim card to the iPad's micro sim size. You would save the cut piece for joining the two again to put in the tray and back into the iPhone. The actual chip is in the correct place.

Original sim cards were the size of credit cards. The one in an iPhone is a "mini sim". The one in the iPad is a "micro sim".

However... of course this doesn't mean it will work - but it's worth a try by a brave soul. Apple may have written the software to prevent this and ATT may have a way for their network to reject it. But I fully expect the dev team to tackle that in the jailbreak version.

What say you??

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Yes, it works. There are even tools that cut a micro sim from a sim.

Interesting proposition. I look forward to hearing further views on this.

this is what im thinking. i would like a adapter to put in the iphone tray so i dont need to retape the other piece. and if it rejects it soft wise the jailbreak can fix that.

Good thread!

So say it works. Is it at all possible to have 2 sim cards? It would be nice to not have to switch the card. (and lose phone connectivity).

Though I see bluetooth tethering as the best way?

In the grand scheme of things (sales), I can't imagine there's going to be many people into cutting up sim cards.

When you say 'back up sim card' - do you mean doing something other than backing up with iTunes? Else, I'm not aware of how to do that.

Considering they said it's going to be unlocked, surely they don't care how you get your data plan, they're more interested in the fact that you have one...

The only trouble is if you use your iPhone sim, or another carrier that has very tight data limits, you might run into a lot of trouble, I know in the UK, O2 pick up on extreme data usage with a sharp email, and disconnection as a threat, if you use your iPhone tethered (the jail broken way).

The chip looks identical.

i hope this works. I've got a sim card here from one of those pre-paid wireless internet dongles that just doesn't get used anymore.

It this mod works I'll just trim it up and whack it in the iPad if I get one.

Of course depending on how much they sell for here in Aus, if Apple for once doesn't feel like screwing over us Aussies on price.

Wow. If it really is this simple, then I'm sure someone on ebay will be selling a "cutter" tool soon. I really really hope its as simple as just trimming down the chip.

Engadget seems to think so: http://www.engadget.com/2010/02/02/micro-sims-can-probably-be-fashioned-from-shaved-down-sims/

lordhamster said:

Wow. If it really is this simple, then I'm sure someone on ebay will be selling a "cutter" tool soon. I really really hope its as simple as just trimming down the chip.

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I'm not sure what the mystery is. It is certainly that simple, and there are already such cutters. Endgadget should do a little research before publishing.

cmaier said:

I'm not sure what the mystery is. It is certainly that simple, and there are already such cutters. Endgadget should do a little research before publishing.

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Can you post a link to such a cutter? I've not found any in my searches.

For me personally the mystery was if the chip was electronically compatible with the old ones. Just because it looks the same doesn't mean they ARE the same. I'm excited that it seems like this may indeed work... thus removing one of my annoyances with the iPad.

I really wish they had just used a good old fashioned Mini Sim but if a $5 cutter will work for me I guess I'm happy.

So, would the service provider be able to tell that you are using your phone's sim in an iPad? Not that it should matter, because you have removed service from the phone by removing the sim.

VenusianSky said:

So, would the service provider be able to tell that you are using your phone's sim in an iPad? Not that it should matter, because you have removed service from the phone by removing the sim.

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I'm sure they could. I think all GSM devices transmit their device type to the towers.

For me, the reason I care about this is not to try to jam my primary phone sim into it, but rather so I can buy a sim for Data usage when I'm on long overseas trips, from providers that don't necessarily supply Micro Sims.

someone needs to sell a cutting kit and an adaptor so people can put it back into their original phones

this would be so great... I would really want to share my iphone sim

It is even greater in Germany.

Because T-Mobile is giving a second and third SIM card for free. Well, at a low one time fee (about 30$) and applicable to customers which stayed on their original data plan only. But great nevertheless.

The additional SIMs work concurrently with the iPhone. I use one in my laptop all time.

meagain said:

In the grand scheme of things (sales), I can't imagine there's going to be many people into cutting up sim cards.

When you say 'back up sim card' - do you mean doing something other than backing up with iTunes? Else, I'm not aware of how to do that.

Click to expand...

They’re are talking about the data on the SIM not the phone,

And yes you can buy SIM readers/copiers. Though they are a little shady as most uses of a copies SIM, much like a skimmed credit card are nefarious

lordhamster said:

Can you post a link to such a cutter? I've not found any in my searches.

Click to expand...

Here you go
click

Very useful to know it works, thanks.

I say this as I bet Apple will make the iPhone 4G use Micro-Sim also, and I really don't want to leave the O2 iPhone Simplicity plan. Just to good a deal (and I guess they want offer that deal on Micro-Sim for some random reason/lie).

Regarding compatibility:
1) The electrical contacts on a micro SIM are 100% identical in layout and use as the electrical contacts on a typical mini SIM, which, in turn, are backward compatible with the electrical contacts on the original credit card-sized SIM.

2) Every piece of software that ran inside the 3G mini SIM card is also present inside the micro SIM. So, if you were able to take a micro SIM and "expand it" to fit into an older handset's mini SIM slot, the older handset would still be able to communicate with it and use it to connect to the network.

3) However, the reverse is not necessarily true. There are some extra features designed into the software running inside micro SIMs, which were not present inside the original specification for the mini SIM or the credit card-sized SIM. So if you have a handset that (for some reason) depends on the presence of these extra features, then a cut-down mini SIM may not work correctly.

3a) That being said, since micro SIMs are fully backward compatible with mini SIMs, there is no harm in manufacturing SIMs with a mini SIM form factor, but the brains of a micro SIM.
3b) It makes sense, then, that carriers probably won't bother manufacturing both "true" mini SIMs, and "true" micro SIMs in parallel.
3c) It would be simpler to just produce one universal SIM (with the brains of a micro SIM), and simply adjust the punch-out perforations to determine whether it will fit in either a mini SIM slot or a micro SIM slot.

Has anybody tried cutting down a mini sim card to a micro sim yet?

See here http://www.macnotes.de/2010/05/08/micro-sim-zuschneiden-fur-ipad-und-iphone-hd-schere-statt-stanze/

Take a sturdy pair of scissors and The Template from the PDF - thats it