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I am traveling in London UK and do not have an international plan for my Blackberry Bold 9650. I have determined that it is a lot cheaper to just by a prepaid Sim Card than the international Verizon plan. Does anyone know if I can use a prepaid sim in my blackberry Bold 9650 without having to do anything special to the actual device? Would it cause any problems on my device?
Thank you in advance for your help
Marjorie Tripp
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marjtripp, you would hve to get your 9650 unlocked from VZW so it takes ANY SIM card of ANY carrier in the world. By default VZW sold phones are "locked" to VZW so it only takes the VZW international 3G roaming SIM card. This is due to the contract and price subsidy. VZW advanced support will unlock it for you as long as you meet a few conditions if I remember they are that you paid your bill on time for the last 6 months and that you understand the conditions (no support from VZW as your using a different carrier's SIM card/service on the phone obviously). You are not violating the warranty as the unlocking process is RIM approved and is built-in at manufacture.
One quick note: Before you travel make sure you have the latest SOFTWARE updated on your BB. This is quite simple to update, just install BB Desktop Manager on your computer. Then download the latest VZW BB 9650 release for your BB here:
http://www.vzam.net/ (You can do it directly from RIM too, same file but the VZ webiste is a whole complete package aka making it a faster download).
In fact once your phone is unlocked it is PERMENENTLY UNLOCKED. and you can (VZW marketing will hate me for this but this is widely known in the industry):
Even switch carriers in the US by putting a AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card in there and use their service. You will only get 2G service as your world-phone only has the 2G 850/1900 bands in the US. It has 3G for out-wide of the US though. I actually know a few business people who do this for maximum coverage (Verizon AND AT&T in the SINGLE VZW BB 9650, when in CDMA mode their using their VZW account provisioned in the MEID, when in GSM/WCDMA mode their AT&T phone number will be used). He has 2 US phone numbers on 2 carriers (Verizon on CDMA, AT&T on GSM) in one phone from VZW. This is mainly in the rare case that VZW coverage sucks he falls-back to AT&T GSM/EDGE. (And yes you can put the AT&T APN settings into the VZW BB, the future of hardware/software is like Windows, it's all about open interoperability and standards).
T-Mobile actually sells US SIM only voice/data plans for this purpose.
marjtripp, you would hve to get your 9650 unlocked from VZW so it takes ANY SIM card of ANY carrier in the world. By default VZW sold phones are "locked" to VZW so it only takes the VZW international 3G roaming SIM card. This is due to the contract and price subsidy. VZW advanced support will unlock it for you as long as you meet a few conditions if I remember they are that you paid your bill on time for the last 6 months and that you understand the conditions (no support from VZW as your using a different carrier's SIM card/service on the phone obviously). You are not violating the warranty as the unlocking process is RIM approved and is built-in at manufacture.
One quick note: Before you travel make sure you have the latest SOFTWARE updated on your BB. This is quite simple to update, just install BB Desktop Manager on your computer. Then download the latest VZW BB 9650 release for your BB here:
http://www.vzam.net/ (You can do it directly from RIM too, same file but the VZ webiste is a whole complete package aka making it a faster download).
In fact once your phone is unlocked it is PERMENENTLY UNLOCKED. and you can (VZW marketing will hate me for this but this is widely known in the industry):
Even switch carriers in the US by putting a AT&T or T-Mobile SIM card in there and use their service. You will only get 2G service as your world-phone only has the 2G 850/1900 bands in the US. It has 3G for out-wide of the US though. I actually know a few business people who do this for maximum coverage (Verizon AND AT&T in the SINGLE VZW BB 9650, when in CDMA mode their using their VZW account provisioned in the MEID, when in GSM/WCDMA mode their AT&T phone number will be used). He has 2 US phone numbers on 2 carriers (Verizon on CDMA, AT&T on GSM) in one phone from VZW. This is mainly in the rare case that VZW coverage sucks he falls-back to AT&T GSM/EDGE. (And yes you can put the AT&T APN settings into the VZW BB, the future of hardware/software is like Windows, it's all about open interoperability and standards).
T-Mobile actually sells US SIM only voice/data plans for this purpose.
Oh I frogot you can also unlock the phone by going to a 3rd party and buying the code (the code is a mathematical aglroithm based on the IMEI#) and the 3rd party phone dealers/shops buy the codes wholesale from the manufacturer (RIM, Research in Motion) or mathematically calculate the code (there are ways).
willzz99, WOW, thank you so much for all of the information and I will see if I can get it unlocked. Also thank for all of the information - I really learned a lot from you.
Thanks again and Cheers
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