If you’re one of the many folks like Aaron Nelson at Hijinks Inc. who feels like paying over $85 per month for both data and voice service is a little extreme, the idea of paying only $30 per month for unlimited data for your iPhone is mighty appealing.
The cost issues of buying an iPad 3G and appropriating its MicroSIM for an iPhone aside, this is a pretty slick little hack involving a razor and some tape. You can either utilize an obsolete SIM or a plastic gift card for this hack, which involves cutting out a slot in either the sacrificial SIM or the gift card to accommodate the iPad’s MicroSIM.
Once you’ve created the MicroSIM holder you can insert it into the iPhone’s SIM cradle. At this point, you’re almost good to go. The final touches involve setting up a custom Access Point Name (APN) in your iPhone’s profile settings via unlockit.co.nz to convince your iPhone to use the hacked SIM for accessing the 3G network. After this, you can cancel your iPhone service and use various VoIP clients like fring or Skype for your phone functionality needs. Hijinks Inc. has full step-by-step instructions for your perusal.
I’ve had good luck using fring with a SIP account over AT&T 3G, and when the multitasking ability comes to the iPhone OS this summer, running a client in the background will make it easier than ever to use a VoIP client exclusively for voice on an iPhone. (If you’re an Android owner, you could probably use the iPad SIM with Google Voice over VoIP to make calls.) That said, PCWorld won’t be held responsible if you damage or brick either your iPad or your iPhone in the process of this hack! If you do go through with this, let us know how it went (and what you’re doing with the leftover iPad) in the comments.
[Hijinks Inc. via Hack-a-Day]