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Debrand Telekom Speedport II (Huawei 593s-12)

I bought a used Telekom Speedport II for a vacation abroad just to realize that Telekom limited the functionality of the device heavily: They disabled roaming, thus I was not able to use the device. Since I was already on-site, I wanted to solve the problem and found no solution online. I am happy to show you how I solved that.

Background: Different Hardware Versions

The original manufacturer of the Telekom Speedport II is Huawei. In my case, it is a “593s-12”. You can find your exact model on the back of the device. Telekom also used other hardware versions (“593u-12”), which seem to contain another hardware. The 593s-12 is rather exotic, most people discuss the 593u-12 or 593s-22.

In my understanding, the 593s-12 seems to be (more or less?) hardware identical to the 593s-22, but with a degraded software which seems to restrict LTE bands.

Bring the Telekom Speedport II Back to the Original Firmware

I found no instructions online but I have found a solution. It might not be necessary to follow step 1, but these were the steps that worked for me.

Please check the exact version of your Telekom Speedport II. Mine is “593s-12”. If you have a different model, like “593u-12”, it probably will not work or even brick your device.

My hardware version is “B” and I started with software version “V200R001B180D35SP03C748” whereas the “C748” stands for Telekom. Every telco who is customizing that kind of Huawei device has an own number 1 2.

Disclaimer: Do the next steps at your own risk. It may brick your device. The original Telekom image is not available, and the next steps are non-reversible!

Step 1): Flash Firmware #1

This is an intermediary step which leads to a software with more features, but 4G will not work. That’s why there is a second step..

There is a telco from Finland which provides a firmware which can be flashed. You can use the translated version or the original version of the page to download the firmware. Click on “Updates” and scroll down a little bit to download the “.bin”-file.

Your device will not let you flash this firmware. You have to modify the binary: Open the binary with an editor, for example Notepad++, and replace the first occurence of “C182” with “C748” 3 4. That is enough. We are mitigating the built-in check if the firmware belongs to the same telco.

If you have modified the binary file of the firmware, upgrade the device via web interface. It might be necessary to reset the device after flashing to also reset the password.

Step 2) Flash Firmware #2

As I already told you, the first firmware looked quite well until I recognized, that only 3G would work. Since that is too slow for my purposes, I digged deeper to enable also 4G.

The second firmware is easier, just download it and flash it on the device.

That’s it. Now you have a “593s-22” with full roaming, VOIP, port forwarding and other functions Telekom should have never disabled in the first place.

Sources

  1. Explanation of software version naming of Huawei ↩︎
  2. Further explanation of software version naming of Huawei ↩︎
  3. Cross-Flashing and modifying binaries ↩︎
  4. Comment which led me try editing the binary ↩︎

Further Sources

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