T-Mobile has been white-listing speed test apps from data allotments for a while now, letting you test the speed of T-Mo’s network without using your monthly data allowance. Now one high schooler has found an interesting loophole related to T-Mobile and speed tests.

Jacob Ajit was recently playing around with a T-Mobile prepaid SIM with no active service and discovered that he could use it to get free data on T-Mo. Ajit explains that, after noticing that he could access T-Mobile’s website and use the SpeedTest.net app with the inactive SIM, he came up with a theory and decided to test it.

Ajit thought that T-Mo was simply performing a check for formatted “/speedtest” folders, and if there was one when the user was trying to access data, the request would go through. So he put a /speedtest folder on his own site, loaded it with files (like a Taylor Swift music video), and accessed it without a problem. He then set up a proxy server to try and access the full web using this same loophole and was successful again.

T-Mobile hasn’t made any official statements regarding Amit’s findings, but he does say that he’s reached out to T-Mo about the issue. As a result, expect this loophole to be shut down. It’s not something that every single person will take advantage of because it requires a bit more effort than just popping an inactive T-Mo prepaid SIM into your phone and browsing the web normally, but I imagine that it’s still a loophole that T-Mobile would like closed.

Ajit’s full write-up on his experiment is an interesting read, and you can check it out at the link below.

Source: Medium