T-Mobile OnePlus 6T owners reporting success unlocking the phone early

If you own a T-Mobile OnePlus 6T, your device differs in a few ways from the ones you would buy directly from OnePlus via OnePlus.com. One of those notable differences is the T-Mobile variant is both network locked and bootloader locked.

There are usually four steps to attaining a fully unlocked smartphone when you buy directly from T-Mobile:

1. Paying off the device in full
2. Requesting a network unlock
3. Waiting 40 days to get the network unlock
4. Proceeding with bootloader unlock steps

However, it looks like many OnePlus 6T users who purchased the device from T-Mobile are having success completely skipping that third step. You can see a collection of user comments from around the internet compiled at Piunika Web which expresses their success.

How did they do it? Most say they simply asked a T-Mobile support rep if they could skip the 40-day wait, and the rep was happy to oblige. Others used excuses such as upcoming international travel or moving to a new location which also resulted in the rep obliging.

There have also been reported situations where reps declined to unlock the device or were for whatever reason unable to, but it appears the majority of users are finding success with this method.

However, do keep in mind that there’s no point in asking to have your device network unlocked if you haven’t already fully paid it off. Only users with a device purchased as a cash sale or equivalent will be able to get unlocked.

Once your T-Mobile OnePlus 6T is network unlocked, you can use the device on another carrier, unlock the bootloader, root the device, flash custom ROMs, etc. There are helpful instructions on how to do so over at XDA Developers.

NEXT: OnePlus 6T: Where to buy, when, and how much