If you're lucky enough to have bagged an iPhone 5
and are wondering how to squeeze your current SIM card or micro-SIM
into that teeny-tiny slot, then you'll need artistic precision and the
slicey dicey skills you picked up in biology class, as well as a head
for geometry.
I took this exam, passed with flying colours and
will show my workings out below (for you to copy, because we're friends,
right?).
Since the nano-SIM is not only smaller than a standard SIM but
also 12 per cent thinner, there was some debate as to whether you'd be
able to go all Edward Scissorhands on your current chip, in the same way you could to create a micro-SIM. The proactive chaps over at network GiffGaff gave it a shot though, and discovered that the iPhone 5 tray is perfectly capable of handling a SIM of standard girth.
To cut or not to cut
Before you go any further, a word of warning. It's important to
remember that there are always risks if you cut your SIM card. When my
own GiffGaff micro-SIM arrived many months ago, it had been damaged in
the shrinking process and my iPhone wouldn't recognise it, leaving me
without a phone for several days. The danger that you might irreparably
damage your SIM is even greater when you're trying to cut it down to
nano size, as you'll have no choice but to snip into the metal contact
that's placed on top of the chip.
I offer no guarantees that this will work, and it's likely that
if it doesn't, your network isn't going to be terribly sympathetic
either. Still, if you're feeling brave, or maybe just a little
desperate, read on, courageous scissor wielder.
Ingredients
The process is much the same as cutting your SIM to micro dimensions, and so no extra equipment is required, just the following:
- 1x iPhone 5 (unlocked) or Any other phone
- 1x standard SIM card or micro-SIM card
- 1x pokey stick device
- 1x scissors
- 1x super-steady pair of hands
Study up
First things first: grab hold of your pokey stick thingy that will
have come in your new iPhone's box -- or a paperclip if you've already
lost it down the back of the sofa -- and jiggle it about in the tiny hole on the side of your phone.
The nano-SIM fits in the caddy with the gold chip facing
downwards. Note the chamfered corner to make sure the card is inserted
the right way around.
I cut down two SIMs in my experiment -- one Vodafone, one GiffGaff.
To make your nano-SIM, you'll have to trim down the metal, but as long
as you don't actually touch the chip, which as you can see from the
picture (in which I have dissected an old SIM using all of my GCSE
science skills), is much smaller than the metal area itself.
I had a real, non-DIY nano-SIM provided by O2 to measure mine up
against and compare it to as I went along. You probably won't have that,
so look carefully at the picture (below right), and make sure you use
the SIM tray as a guide the whole way through. Pens don't work all that
well on cheapy SIM plastic, but even the faintest trace of an outline
can make the difference between nano-SIM DIY success and failure -- so
give it a go.
All SIMs look slightly different, so a bit of nouse and detective
work is required to figure out where exactly the chip is hiding within
the metal. You''ll usually find the chip at the end of the metal
furthest away from the angled corner of your SIM card, or in the middle
of the brackets if your SIM has them.
Take the plunge
There's a Swahili phrase, 'pole pole', which means 'gently
gently, slowly slowly' and this is exactly how you should go about
chopping up your SIM. Better to trim too little than too much, as you
don't want to damage the chip. Neither do you want it to be in any way
too small. The nano-SIM needs to sit snugly in the tray or it will
wiggle about and not make proper and consistent contact with your phone.
On the GiffGaff SIM, I used the faint golden rectangle that was
about the size of a SIM chip to work out how far down it was safe to
cut, but on the Vodafone SIM I hazarded a guess that the bracket-like
lines were my primary clue. I ran my scissors along the outermost points
of the brackets, being careful not to go over the lines (using my GCSE
geography colouring-in skills). When I later cracked the SIM open, I
discovered that my guesswork was spot-on.
When it comes to cutting vertically, take note of the squiggly
pattern in the middle and use that as a guide -- don't trim any further
in than that. I first trimmed to the very edge of the metal, before
using the two lines outside the central squiggly pattern as guides and
snipped vertically, making sure I didn't cross the lines.
The metal area on the GiffGaff SIM I used was already the right
width, so fortunately I could cut (still oh-so-carefully) up the plastic
sides and leave the middle bit be.
One final thing is to remember which end of the SIM card was originally
lacking a right-angled corner, as the final step in creating your
nano-SIM is to make a tiny diagonal snip to fit your SIM into the tray.
The moment of truth
If your SIM fits and if you've looked through the leftover
detritus and not discovered anything that looks alarmingly like an
electronic chip, it's time to test your new nano-SIM in your phone.
Without being too smug, both of mine worked perfectly and I
dearly hope yours did too. If you've slotted it in and your phone is
reading something like 'No service' or 'SIM not recognised' or 'No SIM
installed', then I'm sorry to tell you that this might be the end of
your SIM card's life.
If you're considering slicing up your SIM then best of luck! And be
sure to only use scissors when being supervised by a responsible adult.
