This post was contributed by reader Hami Melon and edited by KUKU.

Offer

Starting in December 2020, T-Mobile has been offering a free trial for hotspot devices:

After you use up the 30-day trial, you can still unlock the device and use SIM cards from other carriers, essentially getting a hotspot for free. The author obtained two units using different addresses. It’s unclear how many units one address can get. It’s also said that you can’t be a T-Mobile customer; if your address is already linked to a T-Mobile account, you may not be able to get one either.

For the author, who has scored multiple Visible SIM cards and still has a Metro PCS locked phone, being able to use a hotspot device with a locked phone is pretty nice. The method in this post comes from the following site; interested readers can take a look:

The author tried it personally and simplified the steps.

Unlock steps

  • Get the hotspot device’s IMEI. You can find it after opening the back cover and removing the battery.
  • Go to https://www.tutorialspoint.com/execute_bash_online.php and enter the following command in the left-side command line. Replace the value after “IMEI=” with your device’s IMEI:
export IMEI=

echo -n "${IMEI}simlock" | sha1sum | cut -c1-8


Click Execute, and the unlock code will be shown on the right. Write down this code.

  • Connect your phone or computer to the hotspot and go to 192.168.0.1. If this is your first time logging in, enter the password “admin”; you will then be asked to set a new password. In Settings --> Mobile Network, choose SIM. Under Carrier Unlock -> Enter Unlock Code, enter the code you just obtained and click Unlock.
  • Reboot the device, then go to Settings -> SIM and check whether Carrier Unlock Status now shows Unlocked. If so, the unlock was successful.
  • In Settings -> Mobile Network, select APN, click Add to add Visible’s APN. Name: Visible APN: VSBLINTERNET Auth: None PDP Type: IPv4v6. Select this APN and click Save Changes.