UNLOCKING TECHNOLOGY developed for Iphone users has been applied to a wide range of 3G mobile phones by UK based 24/7 Mobile Solutions. In some cases you need to drill a hole in your existing GSM SIM card, though.

Essentially, the product – Simable – puts a fake SIM under a subscribers existing SIM card to fool the handset into working with any network. So it effectively unlocks the phone.

The device will be exceedingly attractive to many 3G handset owners because the likes of Nokia have made it very difficult to unlock such phones using software 'cracks' alone.

Another advantage to this product is that it doesn't actually damage the handset itself. Hence, if anything goes wrong with the phone you can return it to the supplier and still get a repair under warranty.

The only snag is that for the Simable to work inside certain 3G handsets it is necessary to make a hole in a standard SIM card. Luckily, 24/7 supplies a suitable hole punch that can very easily do the job for you.

The cost is £16.99 ($33.26) plus shipping. It's obvious that 24/7 is looking for distributors for this in other countries, too. There's a list of which handsets are compatible with Simable here. µ