HOW TO UNLOCK VODAFONE 3G USB K3565 STICK

PREVIOUSLY, ON "A CUP OF VITRIOL" ....
I had given up. I had accepted that my £80 UK Vodafone K3565 Data Stick was about as useful as a paper condom. Here in New Zealand, I looked for unlock software on the internet, only to have intrusive browsers and unwanted software on my PC. I persevered. And then I found THIS tutorial .... IT WORKED!! Not only did it unlock my K3565 for use in New Zealand, but I can now use it on the New Zealand 2-Degrees 3G/GPRS network with a 2-Degrees SIM chip. So wrapped am I, I re-post it here as a "Screw you, Vodafone!"

INTRODUCTION
Vodafone 3G USB K3565 Stick users: you might have noticed that the Stick doesn’t work upon inserting another provider's SIM. In addition, you might have noticed that the Stick also doesn’t work in another country - even with a local Vodafone SIM! It's a pity, because the K3565 Stick provides high internet speed anywhere within range of a GPRS/3G network. At the time of its release, with a top speed of 3.6Mbps, it was one of the best Huawei USB modems. This tutorial will show how you can use any SIM on the Vodafone USB K3565 Stick, in any GPRS/3G country, to access the internet. What’s more you can even make and receive voice calls, video calls from the Stick using the Mobile Partner software. All you need are a few tools and firmware. Although this post is specially written for Vodafone USB K3565 Stick, this tutorial works for all other Data Cards manufactured by Huawei (Idea Netsetter, BSNL 3G etc).

The Vodafone Mobile Connect (VMC) version of the Stick usually comes with VMC Lite software stored in the stick. When you insert the Stick into a USB slot in your PC, the VMC Lite software triggers your PC's Autoplay, asking you to run the software. Before implementing the steps in this tutorial, make sure your VMC Lite software IS installed. So, allow the Autoplay to run the setup file. If you can, make sure the Stick is working on the Vodafone Network of the country of purchase, even though the Stick will not provide internet connection in another country or with another supplier's SIM at this point.

The green or blue blinking light is your indication that, at least, the device is detecting a GPRS or 3G data network in your country, with the SIM you're using. However, your K3565 is still locked to Vodafone, the country of purchase, and even to the Vodafone of the county of purchase! See the Vodafone user guide HERE for details on what the respective lights tell you. This tutorial should leave your K3565 region-free and supplier-free! Follow these steps:

STEPS TO UNLOCK THE K3565

STEP 1 - Find the IMEI Number
First, find the IMEI number of the USB Stick. It's usually written on the USB Stick itself. If the IMEI number isn't written on the K3565 cover, you can use the DC Unlocker Client to find the IMEI number written inside the card on its firmware. Click HERE to go to, and download, the DC Unlocker Client software. Insert the K3565B in a USB slot in your PC. Once it's detected by the PC, run the DC Unlocker Client software to reveal your Stick's IMEI number. Copy and write this number down for use in STEP 3.

STEP 2 - Download the Unlocker Software
Download all the necessary software files and firmware from HERE, through the Reference site at the end of this post, or from Forums mentioned at the end of this post. Move them into a folder where you can see and run the files easily. If you download the software files from the Skydrive Live site (recommended), you should see three grey boxes, like this:

STEP 3 - Find the Unlock Code
You have the IMEI number. You now need to find the Unlock Code for your Stick. To do this, run the “Huawei Unlocker” software you downloaded. It should look like the screenshot below. Make sure you click on the "Huawei" tab, not the "Connection" tab. Type in the IMEI code in the box provided, then click the "Calculate Code" button to reveal the code. Copy or write down your newly-revealed Unlock Code.

STEP 4 - Unlock the Stick
Run the “CardLock UnLock” software you downloaded (screenshot below) and then type in the Unlock Code when you just noted down. Press OK and wait for the "Unlocked Successfully" message.

STEP 5 – Uninstall VMC Lite
This step is where you wish to use the K3565 for a SIM other than Vodafone, by uninstalling the VMC Lite software on your PC. The K3565 USB Stick is now unlocked but it won’t work just yet with another supplier's SIM. First, make a backup of the VMC Lite set-up files, somewhere accessible on your PC. This gives you the option to re-install VMC Lite in the future, in the event you may wish to use a local Vodafone SIM for broadband use. Now, uninstall the Vodafone VMC Lite software that comes with the stick. Only uninstall VMC Lite if you are NOT using a local Vodafone SIM.

STEP 6 - Flash the K3565
Now it’s time to flash the Data Card. Run the installer software “Mobile Partner UTPS16.001.06.01.500”. The software will search and detect your stick (as in the screenshot below). Then, go through the Steps carefully and wait for the process to complete.

That’s it! Now open (run) the Mobile Partner software and you will be able to use the Stick with any supplier's SIM on their GPRS or 3G Network, in any supporting country. This is what your Stick will look like to your PC after Flashing:

Here's an example of the Flashed (unlocked) Vodafone 3G USB K3565 Stick working on the BSNL 3G network.

So if this worked for me, I hope it would work for you too. Caution: Try it at you own risk. I am not responsible for any damaged caused.

Reference Site:
http://indiabee.blogspot.co.nz/2010/07/unlock-usb-modem-latest-technique.html

Data Card Unlocker Forum
http://www.dc-unlocker.com/forum/showthread.php?p=9310

MY “VODAFONE EXPERIENCE”

Now here’s a couple of interesting articles:

“Vodafone earns a Tui's from Aardvark”

“Vodafone's deception uncovered?”

With so much Vodafone talk about the “Vodafone experience,” I want to share MY “Vodafone experience” with you. Today, I have concluded my 6-month struggle to make my Vodem (Vodafone broadband modem, pictured right) work here in New Zealand. And what is that conclusion? I'm told, "Your [80 quid!] UK Vodem can’t be unlocked for use in New Zealand.”

When I was in the UK in June 2010, I was in a house with no internet. I needed internet. I was cut off from the world – naked, alone. Mother says, “You need a Vodafone data stick – they’re amazing and cheap.” £80 down, and a struggle to get it to work, I remind myself NEVER to seek technology purchase advice from my Luddite mother, ever again. The Vodem’s installation certainly wasn’t intuitive! It worked to a fashion, but I was also in a house with poor Vodafone coverage. As I was only in the UK for 7 weeks, I wasn’t too worried about the cost or inconvenience of getting it to work. After all, I could use it back in New Zealand, couldn’t I?

Come the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010-11, I was ruing the fact that I did not test my Vodem stick on landing back in Godzone New Zealand. I didn’t have a New Zealand SIM chip for it, and I didn’t have any credit on it. Power went out as a result of the quakes, and I had no way of emailing, Facebooking or blogging folk to say “We’re OK!” So, I had to (gasp!) plug in an old cord analogue phone, and actually talk to people.

But why shouldn’t my Vodem work? I shouldn't have needed to test it - should I ? After all, Vodafone is an international brand. You should be able to take your Vodafone devices around the world, put in a local SIM chip and use them as you see fit, shouldn’t you? I took my Ericsson phone from New Zealand, bought a UK SIM chip, and BINGO! It worked. Much cheaper than Vodafone Global Roaming, and I still had my NZ phone numbers. However, as the articles above imply, this ability to take MY devices overseas and use a local SIM chip is an increasingly rare occurrence. Vodafone are starting to lock devices so that they only work in the country of purchase. Hands up who thinks that’s bloody wrong?

Vodafone might say, “Well why didn’t you just take your NZ SIM chip over to the UK and use the full ‘Vodafone experience’ with global roaming? Retain your phone number and still send/receive texts as though you were in New Zealand?” Why didn’t I? Because it is sodding, prohibitively expensive. I have heard too many first-hand accounts of friends who have done exactly that, and ended up with a Vodafone bill at the end of the month for THOUSANDS. By locking phones, Vodafone are forcing us down that path. Hands up who thinks that's an exercise in fleecing?

So, when I finally came to test my Vodem here in NZ, I encountered an increasingly ridiculous set of barriers to having it work. When I plugged the Vodem into my new laptop, unsurprisingly, a message told me; “Your software is out of date for your device – please update to the latest version.” So I did. I downloaded a larger, more intrusive Vodafone application to my laptop that wanted to control all my network connections! Sigh. Still, the Vodem didn’t work. I took my laptop and Vodem to the Vodafone shop to be told, I had the “wrong kind” of money on the SIM chip. It needed to be DATA money, you see. Hands up who thinks that’s just silly? So, still no joy. The Vodafone rep continued by telling me, “Hmm … Because you bought it in the UK, you need to phone our Helpline to get the settings changed.” So I phoned the helpline. And just now, “Abdul” from the overseas “Vodafone” Helpline has told me that the device – MY Vodem that I paid 80 quid for – is locked to the UK and can’t be unlocked. In other words, folks, Vodafone devices are now being "zoned."

This is as insidious as the whole DVD-region-zoning farce. As with zoning of Vodafone devices, Region Zoning of DVDs by the film studios has absolutely NO BENEFIT at all to the consumers, and is designed PURELY to achieve the maximum possible additional marginal revenue in the targeted country. In other words, UK consumers are prepared to pay more for a DVD than NZ consumers – but the only way corporations can take advantage of that – C O N T R O L T H A T – is by the region zoning. They make a DVD that will work in the NZ, but not the UK. SO, UK customers can’t buy the cheaper NZ DVDs – they have to buy the more expensive UK DVDs. It is a market aberration - something that the right-wing hacks never talk about when their precious corporations break the rules of their precious “free” market. And they wonder why pirate downloading is so prolific? Vodafone's programme of locking of devices is another perfect example of that market aberration. There is absolutely no reason to lock its devices. The customer doesn’t want it. But Vodafone wants it. Vodafone wants the lucrative, get-money-for-doing-nothing-extra revenue. Actually, it comes down to our misperception that Vodafone is an international company. It’s not. It is a set of local companies called “Vodafone” who all have their own, separate accounting to an international holding company. This, then, actually lends itself to individual country Vodafone companies competing with each other; Vodafone NZ doesn't want Vodafone UK poaching "their" revenue. So, with roaming, Vodafone NZ will secure the revenue when I take my NZ phone to the UK – but not if I buy a UK SIM chip! Hence, the anti-competitive, anti-customer moves from Vodafone to lock devices - when it suits Vodafone.

It gets better (!). Wait till you hear about the hypocrisy. When the boot is on the other foot, Vodafone bleat, “Foul.” In Germany, T-Mobile are also starting to lock their devices - iPhones in this instance. Vodafone wants to prevent this to get a slice of the action. So determined was Vodafone to ensure unlocked devices in Germany .... IT WENT TO COURT:

“According to the [Vodafone] injunction, filed at a regional court in Hamburg, the goal is to stop the sale of the iPhone if it is sold only in connection with a 24 month T-Mobile contract and/or is blocked in such a way that it can only be used in a T-Mobile network.” [Reuters].

In other words, Vodafone wants T-Mobile, the German incumbent, to UNLOCK iPhones (because it suits Vodafone in Germany, of course). Yet, in the UK and New Zealand, Vodafone is doing the exact opposite! Unbelievable. This kind of hypocritical, greedy, anti-competitive behaviour is exactly what sprouts protest from the people [CLICK HERE]. God Bless social media.

And God Bless true competition, in the form of newbie, 2-Degrees. So, stuff you, Vodafone. I’ll bin my worthless £80 Vodem, and buy a rival $45 2-Degrees data stick. At least they seem to be trying to help the New Zealand customer – for now. And yet, I wonder if 2-Degrees will behave in exactly the same way as Vodafone, when 2-Degrees becomes as big. Why did the scorpion sting the fox as he was hitching a ride on that fox across a wide river - knowing he too would drown? Because that’s what scorpions do. Like the scorpion, big corporations will always try to sting the consumers they depend on – because that’s what big corporations do.