Chances are that as a 17-year-old back in the day, your thoughts were occupied with making the right career choice and getting onto the right path to make your dreams come true. Fast forward to the 21st century and today’s teenagers are more tech-savvy than ever before. Their thoughts are likely to be occupied by how to get access to free Wi-Fi and getting their hands on the latest smart device.
The world has become more data-centric, meaning that cellphone operators have to find creative ways to attract customers. And those customers who are already signed up with a mobile operator are constantly trying to find ways to save on data costs.
Instead of sitting around and waiting for a miracle to happen, a teenager from the United States recently made news globally when he got free data on his cellphone.
17-year-old Jacob Ajit is the whizkid who recently hacked his way to get free data on his cellphone.
Currently a student at Thomas Jefferson High for Science and Technology, Ajit found himself without data and decided to fiddle out of curiosity.
“Honestly, I just investigated this curiosity and to learn a bit about how these networks are configured,” he said.
When he went online, he was directed to a portal asking him to renew the prepaid SIM – but Ajit was still able to run his internet speed test app.
He went on run a speed test from a SIM with no service.
Despite not having an active service, the phone was still able to connect to the network, taking Mr Ajit through to a portal asking him to renew the prepaid phone plan.
He set up a remote server that contained “/speedtest” in its web address. By running all of his browsing throughout server, he could surf the web at ease on T-Mobile’s 4G network form a non-active device.
He has since reported the hack to T-Mobile to allow it to fix it.