I am stuck with this Huawei/Vodafone e172 3G modem after a two year contract with Vodafone Romania and I would like (for the technology sake) to get this modem unlocked in case I would decided to subscribe to a better service of a different provider. Apparently it is not very complicated to perform the unlock, it is actually very easy.

Obtain NCK code

First you need the unlock code which is customized for each device. There are plenty of NCK calculators out there, but the easiest one is to post your IMEI over on a forum, like this one, and you will get your answer in a matter of hours.

Unlock your device

Now that you have your unlock code, you will need to enter it somehow into the device. For this you need to download and install some software. I performed it with: entsperren.net – HUAWEI MODEM Code Writer.zip but I am sure that there are other options available like Huawei Unlocker (referenced here) which could probably also calculate the NCK code for you at the same pace (unless you get an error while running this file).

Test your newly unlocked device

And here I am at this final step, with a probably unlocked modem, which I can use just on Vodafone as the only mobile connect software that I have found is proprietary and it will only work on a particular network – Vodafone that is…

Drop me a line if you know any usable Windows (or Mac) software that is willing to accept this modem on … say Orange network.