GSM usb modem OR cheap phone to act as modem

G

Greg P is My HERO!

New member
I'm setting up a home automation/alarm system to send SMS on various conditions, and looking for a solution. I plan to use T-mobile pay-as-you-go, since it's cheap and I've been happy with it for my phone service.

I bought one of the Chinese $30 GSM/EDGE usb modem sticks off eBay, but it won't sign on to the tmobile network. My theory is the problem is the modem has a blank IMEI, all zeroes and tmobile probably bans that.

So...
Can you recommend a functional cheap GSM modem?
or
A cheap used GSM phone model that works well as a modem in Linux?
It needs to let me talk to it via AT commands to send SMS and all that good stuff.

thanks a bunch
 
I picked up a T-mobile WebConnect usb stick (Huawei umg181) and it seems to be working! I can send and receive SMS OK, which was my main goal. Haven't tried anything else yet.
So, it is possible to use a non-Webconnect t-mobile sim card (PAYG sim card) with a locked Webconnect device.
Hope this helps someone.
 
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