Q. Can Usb 3.5g Modems Be Used On Different Networks By Changing Sim Cards?

[Trevor]

I currently have a Huawei E220 USB modem (locked?) to the 'Three' network in the U.K. which installs the operating software automatically. It works well with speeds of 500-600 kbps ... can this be achieved via the Thai mobile networks yet?

My question is : if I change the SIM card and / or 'unlock' the modem in some way, can it be used worldwide with any 3G or 3.5G mobile Internet network, such as this Indonesian one ...

http://www.livinginindonesiaforum.org/show...=696&page=2 Thanks in advance.

[stumonster]

HSDPA UTMS 2100 is not in use in Thailand - so no high speed mobile for your Huawei E220

there are forums devoted to the Huawei gear - google them to get the best out of your equipment

[Trevor]

Apparently my Huawei E220 wireless modem is currently locked to the 'Three' network in the UK, and thus loads Three's software automatically.

Can the Thai phone shops there unlock and re-program foreign-network modems to accept a local GPRS or EDGE Internet provider? What are the best speeds currently available via the mobile phone networks there? Thanks again.

[nikster]

I don't think shops can unlock these - they are not wide-spread enough, and certainly not in Thailand where you can't use them at all.

Whether or not your USB modem is locked depends on where you bought it - if you bought it from 3, they might have locked it.

If it is locked, you can ask your provider to unlock it. Most European countries have laws that require the provider to unlock your phone/USB card for a fee. Fees in Austria (where I asked) were around 30 - 40 EUR. I was also offered a 3G modem that came unlocked to begin with, it cost EUR 20 more than the other, locked versions. The unlocked one cost EUR 99, just to give you an idea on the fair market price. The others cost 79 or 89 with a pre-paid data SIM card.

If you got your 3G modem with a 2 year plan for nothing, you might have to pay more for the unlock, of course.

Edit: BTW, the pre-installed software for the modem has nothing to do with the SIM lock. The SIM lock is on the device, not the software. The operator can remove the lock over the network.

You can probably get a generic driver, or just prevent Windows (Mac?) from starting the "3" software every time you insert the modem. Mine also starts a driver software ("ZTE Connection Manager") but I found that I can just as well connect from the normal PPP network connection interface on OS X - I don't need the software, only the driver that got installed as part of the software install. I haven't figured out how to prevent the software from starting when I insert the modem but I am pretty sure there's an easy way to do that.

[Trevor]

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=696311 describes how to unlock a such a modem. I bought it for £28 secondhand on eBay UK. Even new on PAYG they're only £49 from PCW.

Presumably once I unlock the UK '3'-network lock, any other country's network can install its own software to run on it?

I'm surprised you don't have 3G wireless Internet service in Thailand as Indonesia already has it and they're usually behind Thailand on speed. So the device is of no use at all in Thailand yet?

[zzSleepyJohn]

I don't think shops can unlock these - they are not wide-spread enough, and certainly not in Thailand where you can't use them at all.

They should be useable in Thailand at least on GPRS and probably on EDGE as well. See http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Mobile-Inter...=E220&st=10. My locked E220 with its UK 'Three' PAYG simcard in, detects a GPRS TH GSM® signal, which might be its way of describing EDGE.

My question now is whether anyone has experience of unlocking a recent version of the E220 using Trevor's unlocking link http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=696311 , whether it works, and whether after using it here on DTAC, such an unlocked E220 would still be useable on UK's 'Three'.

You can probably get a generic driver, or just prevent Windows (Mac?) from starting the "3" software every time you insert the modem. Mine also starts a driver software ("ZTE Connection Manager") but I found that I can just as well connect from the normal PPP network connection interface on OS X - I don't need the software, only the driver that got installed as part of the software install. I haven't figured out how to prevent the software from starting when I insert the modem but I am pretty sure there's an easy way to do that.

But what would be wrong with retaining the original 'Three' software and just adding a new profile with DTAC settings, like I show in my attached picture? That software includes the facility to add new profiles, and it displays all the signal details and accumulates the used Mbytes and time quite nicely, so what would be the point in changing it? Presumably the software is basically from Huawei with just a few 'Three' frills added anyway.

[Trevor]

I tried using the unlocking link -- Huawei's own site -- but the program at

http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/lis...e=-1&id=736

would not even detect the E220 connected to my computer, much less 'unlock' it. The Huawei link was supposed to flash it back to their factory default.

You can bet that Three has made it as hard as possible for the average user to connect to another network. And I suspect that if I try to ask Telkomsel in Indonesia to set it up they will merely try to flog me one of their own modems.

Seem to be a few commercial services which offer unlocking ... for a small fee :

http://www.expansys-usa.com/ft.aspx?k=87931 (maybe I should have removed the SIM card first?).

http://www.bidorbuy.co.za/item/7720002/3G_...NG_service.html

http://stores.ebay.ie/GOSIMCARDS/HSDPA-3G-...-SIM-CARDS.html

[zzSleepyJohn]

I tried using the unlocking link -- Huawei's own site -- but the program at

http://www.huawei.com/mobileweb/en/doc/lis...e=-1&id=736

would not even detect the E220 connected to my computer, much less 'unlock' it. The Huawei link was supposed to flash it back to their factory default.......

Hi Trevor. I'm afraid it doesn't seem do any unlocking. I've just tried it, and although it has worked for me, all it's done is replace my 'Three' dashboard with Huawei's. See my pix.

.....You can bet that Three has made it as hard as possible for the average user to connect to another network.....

Sadly, you're right there! The new dashboard has done nothing to unlock me from Three

When I try with my DTAC SIM, no network is detected, but with my Three SIM, I get a roaming signal from True. Same as before.

....Seem to be a few commercial services which offer unlocking ... for a small fee :

Yeah, I've been looking around too, and the best I've found so far is

http://www.fonefunshop.co.uk/Unlocking/nextgen/datacard.htm who offer a remote E220 unlock for GBP15. Doesn't seem too bad, but as there's no 3G in Thailand yet, and all I guess an unlock will give me here is GPRS/EDGE for the time being, maybe I'll spend some time to try and understand the SIMlock process better first.

If anyone's got any pearls of wisdom to offer on the actual SIM unlocking process, they would be welcome

[Farma]

The Huawei E220 is sold in Thailand at telewiz with an AIS SIM. The basic cost for modem and sim card (GPRS/EDGE) is B 6,990.

Hutch and other providers sell the same or similar Huawei HSPDA USB modems.

Now one little problem with the AIS E220. The AIS software only works with XP or older windows. Vista refuses to acknowledge the modem.

One solution in Bangkok is the dtac? shop on the 4th floor of Paragon. If using a laptop take the laptop and modem to them and 20 minutes later they will have it working on vista free of charge.

I’m not sure about unlocking the E220. I have a Mobily E220 that recognizes TH GSM on both the AIS and Mobily sim cards.

zzzSleepyJohn The screen shot you’ve shown is the same one that appears with the AIS sim fitted in the AIS E220

[Trevor]

zzzSleepyJohn, have a look on eBay (UK) ... cheapest unlock £6 ...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:X:RTQ:GB:1123

Did you leave your SIM card in whilst you got the Huawei dashboard?

http://www.3g.co.uk/3GForum/showthread.php?t=66573

Got these from a couple of eBayers ...

After you have unlocked your modem and followed the instructions it will wipe off 3's dashboard software and install a generic universal dashboard software that basically controls the modem but lets you add lots of providers in the profiles section.

So to use three here you load three's settings in, so to use whoever sim you want you need to know there settings. ie three's are

20. 3 is static APN

APN: three.co.uk

Access number: *98#

No username or password required leave blank

most settings are the *98#

but you do need the APN and user and password

this will be given to you by provider or you can normally get it off the net

hope this helps

Paul pand891619 19-9-2008 £10 inclusive

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There should be no problems unlocking your card and using this service.

You will need to buy a new sim once you get to Indonesia (these are usually v cheap!)

I can't specifically answer for Indonesia, but I used a E220 in a few countries in Africa with approx 500k download speeds.

(And then how do I load the Telkomsel software, or is it loaded from their SIM card?)

The dashboard picks up your sim card. you can click auto to scan for networks and logon, or you can manually enter settings (you get these usually when u buy data, or easy to obtain by calling the network)

- philsando 19-9-2008 £5 + £1 post = £6

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So, for a mere £6 unlocking fee plus an Indonesian SIM card, I can be up and running. Odd thing is one charges postage and the other doesn't; I still don't know if they physically need my modem to unlock it. 500 kbps wireless -- in Asia -- would be paradise! Come on, Thailand, wake up!! Trevor.

[Trevor]

One other point on reception of 3G / 3.5 G signals. It is possible to attach an external antenna if you break the E220 case open and solder on the appropriate lead -- there are instructions on the web if you search.

One guy said simply maintaining the modem vertically helps. Another easy solution would be to add a USB extension cable and dangle it out of a window.

In the UK HSDPA service is pretty widespread but in Third-World countries I suspect the coverage to be limited to cities at present, for example ...

http://3g.indosat.com/about/coverage.php?city=2

Friday, November 10, 2006 11:31 AM by Eriawan:

I agree about your last statement about the quality of 3G network. In Surabaya, the problem is quite the same. 3G coverage is not covering large part of Surabaya region.

The fact is, I've tried using Telkomsel and XL, and they have averaged connection below 180kbps. The real everyday connection speed is still far below the advertised (or promised?) speed. Although the quality of video call is quite adequate, we need more than just video call.

Fast internet connection is still quite a 3G feature that draws a lot of attention and curiosity to try and harness. My friend from a large telecom industry in the US (one of Bell companies) told me that one of the main obstacle of maintaining high speed of 3G is the available frequency slots, frequency permissions, and regulations. In the end, we have to admit that Indonesia is still a baby in this are of high industry regulations.

Government's lack of proper understanding in this industry is quite severe, but it's showing a progress also. Meanwhile, I'm afraid we have to stick with 3G, not the real 3.5G of HSDPA. Also one thing more worth questioning, do Indosat, Telkomsel and XL really have enough bandwidth to serve broadband HSDPA? Only time and 3G users will tell.

[zzSleepyJohn]

zzzSleepyJohn, have a look on eBay (UK) ... cheapest unlock £6 ...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:X:RTQ:GB:1123

Thanks Trevor. Sounds reasonable. Bit puzzled as to whether this is a generic solution which will allow me to unlock other E220s as well as my own, 'cos if I've understood correctly, the unlock code has to be derived by inputting one's unique IMEI code. Anyway, I've e-mailed the seller to ask.

Did you leave your SIM card in whilst you got the Huawei dashboard?

No, I took it out. I think I read somewhere that was the correct thing to do.

Got these from a couple of eBayers ...

After you have unlocked your modem and followed the instructions it will wipe off 3's dashboard software and install a generic universal dashboard software that basically controls the modem but lets you add lots of providers in the profiles section.

So to use three here you load three's settings in, so to use whoever sim you want you need to know there settings. ie three's are

20. 3 is static APN

APN: three.co.uk

Access number: *98#

No username or password required leave blank

most settings are the *98#

In my original "3" dashboard, the access number was set to *99#, and to call DTAC using my old Nokia phone as a modem the access number is *99***1#, so I query that *98#.

Before changing your dashboard, I'd suggest making a note of all the existing settings in your original one. Actually I'm not sure that it's even necessary to change the dashboard at all in the case of 'Three' because theirs has a facility for entering other network profiles anyway. Once the SIMlock is removed, I wouldn't be surprised if you find other network profiles work quite happily on the 'Three' dashboard.

[Trevor]

A well-spent £6 finally unlocked my £28 secondhand Huawei E220 at the second attempt. The original SIM card is left in whilst the three wizards are run in succession.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:X:RTQ:GB:1123

Now I can manually register with any ISP I like! Problem solved, with a little help from eBay. The unlock guy said he was getting 500 kbps in Africa, so I don't know why Thailand is so slow on the uptake of HSDPA 3.5G.

[zzSleepyJohn]

A well-spent £6 finally unlocked my £28 secondhand Huawei E220 at the second attempt. The original SIM card is left in whilst the three wizards are run in succession.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...E:X:RTQ:GB:1123

Now I can manually register with any ISP I like! Problem solved, with a little help from eBay. The unlock guy said he was getting 500 kbps in Africa, so I don't know why Thailand is so slow on the uptake of HSDPA 3.5G.

Hmmm... I've just spent £6 and tried that, but it hasn't worked for me. Not so far at any rate.

It's installed the Huawei dashboard again, but again it's not unlocked my dongle from "3"

I've taken it up with the Ebay supplier, so in the meantime if anyone else is contemplating this unlock package, I'd suggest they PM me first for more details and any update.

Trevor - Have you definitely proven that yours now works with a non-"3" SIM?

[Farma]

zzSleepyJohn and Trevor you seem to have your on little chat going on here, I’ll try to butt in a bit.

My Mobily and AIS dongles are working with AIS Sim on vista using the mobily dashboard here in Thailand.

The problems I mentioned earlier about the AIS dongle not being recognized by vista was sorted yesterday at the AIS shop 4th floor Siam Paragon.

They connected the AIS dongle to an XP computer and uploaded vista firmware from the HUAWEI website onto the dongle. They then connected the dongle to my Vista laptop (which now recognized the dongle) and added the AIS settings to the Mobily dashboard > settings > connection> new. The AIS access number is *99#

I now boot the computer with dongle plugged in. It’s recognized by vista and I select the AIS profile name from the dropdown list on the mobily dashboard and connect. My current received top on TH GSM GPRS/EDGE is 222kbps and sent top 85kbps

As far as improving signal I carry a 2 metre usb extension cable. If the signal is low I find it improves greatly by moving the dongle up and dangle it off a curtail rail etc.

[zzSleepyJohn]

zzSleepyJohn and Trevor you seem to have your on little chat going on here, I'll try to butt in a bit....

Sorry I hogged the thread

Trevor & I have identified a mutual but rather specialised problem with E220 unlocking, and we've now moved our conversations off-thread. PM me if interested.

It's encouraging to know you can swap around between Mobily and AIS and that your dashboard isn't critical.

As far as improving signal I carry a 2 metre usb extension cable. If the signal is low I find it improves greatly by moving the dongle up and dangle it off a curtail rail etc.

That's a good tip, and exactly my experience too, especially if you hang the dongle vertically with it's flashing light pointing out of the window in the direction of the cell transmitter.

[davidxl]

got my Three payg E220 unlocked by fonefunshop £15 online, took seconds to do. It just takes the lock off, doesn't mess around with the firmware. The Three branded software client works fine still on vista or xp, just need to add new profiles on for new networks.

My little Thai orchid is taking it back to Bangkok with her. I guess the best thing for her to do is to go to her local DTAC shop with her laptop and modem and get them to set it up with an appropriate SIM card and data deal? My main question is what sort of deals can you get for edge connections in Thailand these days, say 1GB a month?

[zzSleepyJohn]

got my Three payg E220 unlocked by fonefunshop £15 online, took seconds to do. It just takes the lock off, doesn't mess around with the firmware. The Three branded software client works fine still on vista or xp, just need to add new profiles on for new networks.

My little Thai orchid is taking it back to Bangkok with her. I guess the best thing for her to do is to go to her local DTAC shop with her laptop and modem and get them to set it up with an appropriate SIM card and data deal? My main question is what sort of deals can you get for edge connections in Thailand these days, say 1GB a month?

My £6 unlock from Ebay, mentioned previously, is still in trouble, but to give him his credit the vendor is working very hard to find a solution, so as I'm not in a hurry, I'm sticking with him for the time being. The reason I mention this is because we're indentifying that "3" have been applying a different lock method to their more recent models, which require a different unlocking tool.

Have you actually been able to prove yet that your fonefunshop unlock does work OK with a non-"3" simcard? It would be useful to have your confirmation if and when you have.

I'm not an expert on the different Edge data deals in Thailand, and other threads have covered this question quite well recently, but I believe DTAC do an unlimited package for about 1000 baht/month. Cheaper packages are available, limiting you on time rather than on MB. It means that when the network is all queued up in traffic jams and you're not getting anywhere, you are still using up your allocated time.

[davidxl]

got my Three payg E220 unlocked by fonefunshop £15 online, took seconds to do. It just takes the lock off, doesn't mess around with the firmware. The Three branded software client works fine still on vista or xp, just need to add new profiles on for new networks.

My little Thai orchid is taking it back to Bangkok with her. I guess the best thing for her to do is to go to her local DTAC shop with her laptop and modem and get them to set it up with an appropriate SIM card and data deal? My main question is what sort of deals can you get for edge connections in Thailand these days, say 1GB a month?

My £6 unlock from Ebay, mentioned previously, is still in trouble, but to give him his credit the vendor is working very hard to find a solution, so as I'm not in a hurry, I'm sticking with him for the time being. The reason I mention this is because we're indentifying that "3" have been applying a different lock method to their more recent models, which require a different unlocking tool.

Have you actually been able to prove yet that your fonefunshop unlock does work OK with a non-"3" simcard? It would be useful to have your confirmation if and when you have.

I'm not an expert on the different Edge data deals in Thailand, and other threads have covered this question quite well recently, but I believe DTAC do an unlimited package for about 1000 baht/month. Cheaper packages are available, limiting you on time rather than on MB. It means that when the network is all queued up in traffic jams and you're not getting anywhere, you are still using up your allocated time.

Yep, I have an O2 sim card for my mobile which has an "unlimited" Internet add-on, I created a new profile in the Three client software for O2 and it worked (fonefunshop send you an email with the settings for all the big mobile providers. However, Ts&Cs for my O2 sim specifically exclude use in a dongle or giving another device access to Internet as it's meant to be just for surfing from a mobile phone, so just did it for test purposes. Thanks for the info on data charges , will probably go for the unlimited option at that price, as long as it's PAYG as only planning to be in LoS for 4 months.

[davidxl]

just to add that everything went well. Tirak wet to a DTAC shop in BKK and they set it up for her in less than 10 minutes, she went for a prepay deal of 250 hours a month (approx 8 hours a day) for B500 as she thought that was more than enough. Have just finished on MSN Messenger with her, video and audio was fine, almost as good as her local Internet Cafe. No dropouts of service yet, but she is heading to a village east of Ubon Ratchatani tonight so will see how it performs in a more rural setting.

[zzSleepyJohn]

just to add that everything went well. Tirak wet to a DTAC shop in BKK and they set it up for her in less than 10 minutes, she went for a prepay deal of 250 hours a month (approx 8 hours a day) for B500 as she thought that was more than enough. Have just finished on MSN Messenger with her, video and audio was fine, almost as good as her local Internet Cafe. No dropouts of service yet, but she is heading to a village east of Ubon Ratchatani tonight so will see how it performs in a more rural setting.

Yes, encouraging! If that was on DTAC's EDGE service, I think you did well. As far as I know there's no 3G or HSDPA service in Bangkok yet. It will be interesting to know how the performance compares back in the village, and at different times of the day. In case of a weak signal out there, hanging the dongle up in a window on the end of a USB extension cable can make a lot of difference.

[davidxl]

just to add that everything went well. Tirak wet to a DTAC shop in BKK and they set it up for her in less than 10 minutes, she went for a prepay deal of 250 hours a month (approx 8 hours a day) for B500 as she thought that was more than enough. Have just finished on MSN Messenger with her, video and audio was fine, almost as good as her local Internet Cafe. No dropouts of service yet, but she is heading to a village east of Ubon Ratchatani tonight so will see how it performs in a more rural setting.

Yes, encouraging! If that was on DTAC's EDGE service, I think you did well. As far as I know there's no 3G or HSDPA service in Bangkok yet. It will be interesting to know how the performance compares back in the village, and at different times of the day. In case of a weak signal out there, hanging the dongle up in a window on the end of a USB extension cable can make a lot of difference.

I've just finished a 3 hour MSN chat with my gf in her villlage (evening there, afternoon here), about halfway between Ubon Ratchatani and the Laos border, the text transfer is just about instant, webcam picture was good for both of us even when set to 'large' though the picture refresh was a tad slow though acceptable at around 0.5s. Had 3 disconnects during the chat, 2 of which were complete diconnects and one was just a webcam disconnect, all solved immediately by reconnecting. Alos, used to feature to send a short voice message with no problems. We did try to initiate a full videocall with voice via MSN, it failed totally, though I wsn't surprised as this feature didn't usually work for us in BKK internet cafe's either. As far as I know it's using DTAC's edge service, dropping down to gprs when it can't get an edge connection, I have tried telling her about using a usb extension to get a better signal, but she didn't understand, wish I had shown her before she left, she was in a very basic wooden house though so I doubt it blocked the signal much. The village is highly impressed and amazed with her ability to get internet anywhere though.

I'm thinking if 3G became widely available and the prices for access and for kit like basic eee pc's with built in SIM modems were right then this could be a big step to bringing the internet to the whole of the population of thailand and could make the supplier companies involved a fortune.

[davidxl]

Just finished a 2 hour chat with gf, she's now in Surin at her sisters house, gave a better picture on webcam than the village near Ubon and no disconnects, if she had said she was on dialup I would have believed her

[zzSleepyJohn]

Just finished a 2 hour chat with gf, she's now in Surin at her sisters house, gave a better picture on webcam than the village near Ubon and no disconnects, if she had said she was on dialup I would have believed her

Interesting to have your report on how it's performing. You didn't say what time of day this latest session took place, though. In my experience in Thailand, you can usually overcome low signal problems by moving near to a window or using an extended USB cable, but it's time of day that's the real killer.