Incidenatlly, which are failing, the old or the new? I get the impression from people recently getting FTTC it is the kit they get now, not what I got back in February, see my earlier post for SN/FW, where I have no problem despite it being on a desk in a fairly hot environment, 24.2C at this point in time, 11pm.

No soldering is needed to just unlock the HG612 modem. The unlock instructions are here [1].

However, I deliberately haven't built the unlock firmware. I would rather not take the blame if it bricks the modem. That said, the source code for all the tools to do the unlocking are in this tarball [2] ready to use at your own risk.

Since it seems there are (at least) two different firmware releases for the HG612 - SP06 and SP10, it would make sense to combine the unlocking with an automatic upgrade to firmware SP10. As SP10 firmware is already installed in some of the earlier models (53030428) of the HG612 that should work okay, but it needs testing first to be sure.

cheers!

[1] https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chro...
[2] https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B6wW18mYskvBODI5ZGJ...

As a result of your musing, I visited my neighbour and asked if I could take a look at all the relevant numbers (serial, firmware, etc) of his HG612 modem.

For other reasons, I actually posted the information to a forum thread at Kitz' website and asbokid saw it there. So, for tbb'ers, I now repeat it here --

It was only yesterday that I called in on my neighbour (FTTC enabled) to ask if I could note down all the details from his OR provided modem. For those who have never seen one in real life, or the box in which it is delivered, here follows a transcript from my note pad --

On the Box

Huawei Home Gateway, EchoLife HG612
Support VDSL2
2 Ethernet Ports
Advanced Management via HTTP, TR-069
Support Router Mode and Built-In Firewall

On a Sticky Label Affixed to the Right Hand End of the Box

ITEM: 53030428
MODEL: EchoLife HG612
NAME: FTTC VDSL NTE
DATE: 2011-01-24
NOTES:

On a Stickly Label Affixed to the Left Hand End of the Box

UOI (PRIMARY PACK)
BT Item Code 049586
Description FTTC HG612
Quantity 1
Unit of Issue PCS
Contract No
Date of Man/Del
Use by Date
Calibration Date
Huawei BOM code 53030428

On the Underside of the Device

Serial Number: 21530304288K11031127 Y2 HG612
Firmware Version: V100R001C01B028SP10
MAC: <elided by b*cat>

Had mine in now over a week, and my router isn't even the slightest bit warm to touch, even after downloading a few GB. touch wood it aint one of the dreaded models