Hicken Design

Does it really work?  The short answer is YES with a few buts… in there.  You can use T-Mobile on your iPhone 3G.  Before I bought one I was skeptical.  I would read online that the iSmartphone 2008 X-Sim works and then 2 paragraphs down in the comments someone would confirm that it doesn’t work.  I hope to help clear this up a little for those who are new to the iPhone 3G or looking to get one.

The main reason that people want to use T-Mobile or some other provider over AT&T is that it’s significantly cheaper.  Say nothing about the horrible customer service you may experience with AT&T.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, you can read about my experience with buying a few iPhone 3Gs on a family plan.

With an unlocked iPhone you can install a small hack (TZones) which allows you to use the T-Zones data plan ($5.99/Month) as an unlimited data connection.  I have a brother and a good friend who both did this on the first generation iPhone.  This is a big draw and one of the main reasons consumers don’t want to be chained to a provider when they buy a phone – especially one as expensive AT&T.

So what works?

Option 1 – Lesser Known Providers
Well, if you are afraid of hacks, you could go this route:  At the time that I purchased my iPhones my cell phone service was through Consumer Cellular.  The great thing about them is that they offer month to month plans at a significantly discounted rate compared to AT&T but they piggy-back on AT&T’s network.  I was pretty psyched when I put my Consumer Cellular sim card in my iPhone 3G and it worked!  So option 1 is to find a low cost provider that uses the AT&T network.  Here is a list of USA wireless service providers.

Option 2 – Sim Card Hack
I fully expected to have to use this method to unlock my iPhone so it was a nice surprise to find out that Consumer Cellular just worked.  The major drawback was that they didn’t offer data plans.  I used the WIFI on my phone when at home and at work for an internet connection.  I was blown away by how often I actually used the internet on my phone.  The web browser on the iPhone is the first mobile web experience that’s actually worth talking about (nice work Apple).  The only major flaw with it is that there is no flash player (um…   duh Apple?).  Since I use the internet so much on my iPhone now, I decided to start looking at T-Mobile so I could get a data plan.  Edge is the data network that both AT&T and T-Mobile use.  It’s not quite as fast as 3G but it’s fast enough to do what you need most of the time.  In my post on unlocking the iPhone 3G you can get instructions and see pictures of how I did it.  I used the iSmartphone 2008 X-Sim.  It worked perfectly until Apple released the 2.1 firmware update for the iPhone.  After installing it, I was able to get phone service, voicemail and text messaging but was unable to get data a connection to the Edge network.  I’ve ordered a new X-Sim that claims to work on the 2.1 firmware and doesn’t require you to cut your original sim card.  We’ll see if that works.

So the benefit is that you should be able to use any GSM provider using this method.  The drawback is that it might stop working as new firmware gets rolled out and data features may not work depending on the sim hack that you buy.  Of course you have the option not to install the new firmware.

Option 3 – Water The Money Tree
I sold a few of these phones on eBay for a profit and I noticed that there were several others selling for well over $1000.  The difference was that these phones were legally and officially unlocked by Apple only to be sold in other countries.  I wasn’t willing to pay that kind of money for one.

Option 4 – Wait
The iPhone Dev Team is always hacking away on the iPod Touch and iPhone.  It is possible that they will eventually find a hack for the baseband frequency on the iPhone 3G as they did with the first generation iPhones.  If that happens, you will be able to PWN your iPhone using the Pwnage Tool or WinPwn.  This is a very simple process that requires very little technical skill.  After Pwn’ing your iPhone, it will be unlocked to any GSM provider without an extra sim card hack.

When my new X-Sim arrives I’ll post an update as to whether or not it worked with T-Mobile’s data network. Update:  The new sim unlocker arived and didn’t work at all.  This was the new one that they say requires no cutting to your sim card.  It didn’t fit in the iPhone first of all.  Secondly when I finally got it in, it didn’t work at all.  Anyway, I’m not waisting any more cash on this experiment for now.  If you have a better experience with and x-sim, post a comment and let me know.

I recently decided to purchase the iPhone 3G. I really like it except for a few small problems and one BIG problem. The big problem is that it’s locked to AT&T’s network. I have horrible service on AT&T at home and at work. When I called them to cancel my service (on the 28th day after I bought my phone with the plan) they made it very difficult to cancel my plan. They said that I would have to call the Apple store where I bought the phone. I called the Apple store who told me that they can’t do anything about canceling my service and that I would have to call AT&T back. So I called them back. By the time I got someone on the phone I had spent probably about an hour waiting on hold between Apple and AT&T just to cancel my service. This time the AT&T representative looked up my area by zip code and told me that it was a “known issue” that service in my area was bad. They had plans to install a new tower but that would be like 6 months down the road. On top of that, there had been rumblings in the news about the iPhone dropping calls when the 3G network was bad. This supposedly was due to a faulty chip which Apple has attempted to fix via a firmware update (2.1). So I asked to speak to the manager. When I got her on the phone, she insisted that I hadn’t used my phone enough to know if it was bad service. Hello!? Half the time I don’t have service at work or at home. After explaining this to her she continued to make excuses. I asked for a discount on my first month’s bill. No dice. I wanted to keep the phone and cancel the service since I had already put all my personal information on the iPhone. Long story short, AT&T really upset me and handled the whole situation as if I was a nobody. They will never see another dime of my money. At least not until their CEO and their culture changes.

So I got my service canceled and got charged the $175 to do so. But at least I have the phone (which AT&T said would be no good without their service).

Today I decided to make the phone work with a much less expensive service provider. Here are some photos of how to install the the X-Sim into your iPhone 3G and begin using any GSM provider you wish.

Don’t do any of this until you have viewed all the photos and read the comments carefully.

Notice the pin hole next to the headphone jack. This is used to eject the sim card tray.

I used a mechanical pencil to eject the sim tray but you can use a paperclip, pin or anything else you can find laying around.

The sim card tray will only come out about as far as shown in the photo. From there you’ll need to grab it and pull it out.

You’ll see a message on the screen notifying you that the sim card is missing.

Pull the tray out.

The tray with my sim card in it. Notice that the card fits perfectly in the tray. Take notice of the notch in the upper left corner as well.

Pull the sim card out of the tray. Notice that there are at least 6 contact points on the back of the card. These points will need to make contact with the X-Sim.

Here’s what the X-Sim looked like in the container. I ordered it off of E-Bay for $20 shipped.

Looking closer at the X-Sim you can see that it is paper thin and has a small microchip in the upper left corner.

The X-Sim fits perfectly in the sim card tray.

We’ll need to cut some extra plastic off of our sim card to make room for the microchip on the X-Sim. I recommend that you lay your sim card on top of your X-Sim and measure this before actually cutting. You might even want to mark it with a pencil.

Sweet! Our sim card is ready to go.

The corner that we cut off is exactly the right size to make room for the microchip on the X-Sim.

Remember, there are six contact points on each card. They will line up when you lay the sim card on top of the X-Sim.

Here’s what they look like from the front when the are both in the sim card tray…

…and the back.

BEFORE YOU INSERT THE TRAY BACK INTO YOUR IPHONE be sure to tape or glue your old sim card into your sim card tray so that it doesn’t get stuck inside the phone next time you try to eject it.

Now you can insert the sim card tray back into your iPhone.

Sweetness! No more AT&T shackles! Works like a charm.

Finally the almighty 3G is unlocked!

So, do you know of a better way to do this? Have you had good or bad experiences with specific unlock cards? Add your comments below.