British group releases 3G phone unlocking mod

By Tim Conneally | Published April 29, 2008, 6:42 PM

A company known as 24/7 Mobile Solutions has made available a chip which the company claims to be able to unlock any 3G phone.

To install the SIMable mod, the user must punch a hole in his SIM card with the provided cutting device, and then sandwich the chip and the SIM together in the handset.

SIM unlocking mod chip

The list of compatible handsets includes an extensive selection of Nokia phones, and a moderate list of Sony Ericsson and Samsung devices. Some company's SIM cards actually require two different types of modifications, but SIMable comes with a cutting tool (similar to a hole punch) for making them.

SIMable costs £16.99 and can be ordered directly through the company's Web site. That site provides little insight into its manufacturer. The SIMable site, according to a WHOIS inquiry, was only created at the beginning of April.

Comments

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It's funny if you read the headline, you almost thought it said 3g Iphone haha, silly me.

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Why pay £16.99 to under a phone when you can pay $10 to have someone do it for you? I don't know other area, in NYC, it's everywhere.

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When I deployed I contacted ATT and told them them I'm taking my phone out of country and would possibly be using a prepaid carrier until I get back in the states. They were very helpful and understanding that I didn't want to purchase another phone and didn't hesitate on giving me the unlock code for my HTC 8525.

Most people should be able to unlock their phone by just calling their carriers and asking for the unlock code. Customers have been able to do this for over a year now since the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was revised to allow customers to choose their own carriers. Here's a small article about it: http://ebiquity.umbc.edu...-is-now-legal-in-the-us/

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For a lot of customers (including me) the experience is completely different. Cingular claims to: not have the code, not know what it is, being unable to do it with unlock code, etc. Then they just tell you you can continue using their sim card (forgetting to mention it'll cost you ~$3/minute.)

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Yea asking the right questions works beautifully. If you call in and request an unlock code and you're still within your contract you got with the device they are (by policy) not to release the unlock code. You say your roaming internationally and (again by policy) they release it or contact the manufacture on your behalf to have the code sent to you via text within 5-7 days. The only people who seem to have a problem are the ones who call from the airport and expect they should have their phone unlocked before they board.

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actually they give them out right on the spot with ATT. All you need is the "IMEI" number and probably the serial number for your phone and they give it to you in three minutes over the phone. If you work for them (like someone I knew that was deploying with me) and you try to unlock a company issued phone it can take 5-7 days to approve it. They don't actually know if you are leaving the country but they will give you the world calling option so if you need to call them from overseas you can call their international number for free.

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I'm sorry you had this issue with cingular. Was this when it was Cingular or with ATT? I did the three months ago with no problems but I don't see why they would do it to you if you were traveling internationally.

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Unlock? in what sense?

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So that the phone can be used on any network, not just the one it is locked to.

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Sounds dangerous to me. Just think of all the customers that'll scratch the wrong chip(s) and or metal leads.

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cool son!

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Sounds like a hypersim. Needed to unlock many 3g phones from asia.
Hopefully the solution is far better on these phones than it is on Korean/Japanese ones

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