Step 1:

    Before you begin Organize all the Material you have gathered. Make sure you have everything ready. Turn off the Kindle completely, not just to the screensaver mode. (Hold the key longer). Read the whole description before you do anything! Everything you do is at your own risk.

 Step 2:

    Flip over your Kindle and lay it -screen down- on the soft -and clean- cloth to avoid scratches on it. Remove the smaller grey plasic cover by sliding it away from the metallic cover. as soon as you have a small slit/gap in between, you can use the credit card to work your way through to the other side until it slides off a bit. When it's loose then remove it an lay it away. I think this is the trickiest part of all. The cover sits really thight.

 Step 3:

    There are two screws on the sides, that hold the bigger metallic backcover in place. Remove these screws. Now you can slide the metallic case away easily. Before you slide the metallic cover, note the volume keys, these will fall off when the cover can't hold them anymore.



  

 Step 4:

    Remove the Battery, by removing the two screws that hold it.

 Step 5:

    Now it's time to remove the wireless modem. First remove the antenna connector, then remove the two screws that hold it in place. The modem now should raise up in it's socket due to the pressure applied by the contacts. If it does not raise, pull anything away that touches the modem, or even help a bit by putting a screwdriver below it. Be carefull.


  

 Step 6:

    Replace the CDMA/EVDO modem with the UMTS/HSPA modem. Put it in the same angle you have removed the EVDO modem. When it is fully in, push it down on the side with the screws/antenna. It will NOT snap or anything. You have to screw it thight. Now we have an UMTS/HSPA modem in. Note that the antenna connectors on the Dell 5530 are in reverse, make sure to connect the antenna to the "main" output.


     

 Step 7:

    Select a fitting simcard holder. This is the one thing that LAB126 has messed up! The distance between the two rows of solder pads for the simcard holder have an approx. distance of 17mm. The idiotic part about this is that there are none that you can buy with that separation. The market (aka. farnell) has some narrow ones with 7-8mm distance or wide ones with 25-28mm distance. None with 17mm. Also the pin for the GND contact has no thermal separation which makes it really hard to solder that pin.

     

 Step 8:

    Remove all solder that is on the pads, with a suction pump or similar. Put the simcard holder onto the solderpads. Fix it by soldering, begining by the GND solder pad. Use new solder, as you have removed the old solder. The GND pad needs some heating time, because of the heat dissipation throuch the PCB. All others should be easy.

 Step 9:

    Insert simcard and battery. reclose. use.

 Things I've learned:

   The EVDO modem might work in a PC, if someone finds drivers for it ( 1410:8000 USB VID:PID ) (The Kindle itself most obviously has Linux drivers for it. I don't use that OS on my laptop.). Though it would not make any sense for me, I live in Europe and right now have no plans to visit the States. ( "Built in free internet everywhere" would be really nice with one of those small netbooks. Most of them have an empty mini-PCIe port.)
   It's a USB modem, so the Kindle has one USB Host port at least.
   Most (all that I know) mini-PCIe Wireless LAN (WiFi) cards have a PCIe connection. So A WiFi mod will need more hardware hacking than this. You might need to find a WiFi-USB adapter that has an U-Fl Antenna connector on it and is shorter that 5 cm. Simply connecting a wifi usb adapter in place won't work since the backside of the kindle is metal.
   The inner backside plastic is even resistant to permanent marker. The modification notice i wrote there comes off just by touching it.(Or my CD-R pen is getting old :)