Huewei K3715 for O2 mobile b/band?

Mrs OBumble

Hi - looking for some advice about where to look for help:

I'm an O2 mobile broadband customer (have been for a while, and have signed up for a contract so will be for at least another six months). Happy enough, except that I've had no end of grief with the E220 modem (my laptop is a HP, apparently they don't always nicely together).

I've recently spend a bit of time overseas, and while I was there I wanted to sign up for mobile broadband. I tried using my E220 from here with a local SIM there, but it wouldn't go. Possibly because it's network locked ... although I have flashed it over a couple of times to get around problems. So I ended up buying a Huawei K3715 modem from Vodafone, which the folks there were 120% would not be network locked. It worked fine overseas. And theoretically should work back here in Ireland with my O2 SIM.

BUT I've been trying to use here. So far, I've set up a new connection with the O2 APN (open.access) as I remember it from before. But though the Vodafone Mobile Connect software lets me enter the details of a new connection, it won't actually let me select it from the connections drop-down list. Which is making me wonder if it's network locked.

I've been googling, and it does seem that there are any number of people keen to sell me unlocking software for the modem. But I'm a bit doubtful - some of them ain't that great a spelling etc, so I'm wondering how legitimate etc their software is. And anyway ... I don't really know if the problem is that the modem is network locked or not.

I had a bit of a look at O2's site, and it seems that the K3715 isn't one of their devices. So I'm guessing I'll get no help from them :-(

I'm just wondering if anyone here can suggest some places for me to look for advice, and safe unlocking software?

(Yes, I could always revert to the E220. But I had to de-install the software for it before installing the Vodafone Mobile Connect software. I don't want to go back to a restore point 'cos other stuff I've done. And I'm not keen on the magical process I'll have to follow to re-install the E220 software - am pretty sure it involved waving chicken bones at the computer in just the right way, etc ...)

jor el

More than likely the modem is locked. They generally are.

You should be able to use either modem with either software interface. So plug in the new modem, and try using the old O2 connect software that the E220 installed.

If you have an O2 sim in the Vodafone modem, and the modem is locked, you should see some sort of an error. Don't know what that is as both of my modems (E220 and a K3520) are unlocked, but I can use the Vodafone and O2 software, for both modems, and for any network (also tested on Three).