Comments on: What GSM Carriers Does The Verizon BlackBerry 8830 Support?

By: Moises Uribe

Moises Uribe — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 03:43:53 +0000

I bought a BB 8830 two months ago under the assumption that this was a world phone. The people at Bell Mobility told me that the phone would work globally with the exception of North America. I bought it for the specific purpose of business trips to Colombia. Before my trip, I reconfirmed with Bell’s CSRs that my phone would work in Colombia and they confirmed.
When I got into Colombia, the phone read the SIM card from all three GSM operators in the country, but would not register on to any network.
After calling Bell to report the misinformation they offered an apology and gave me $100 credit! WTF after I paid over $400 for the phone and extended my contract for another 3 years!!
Apparently cellphone companies in Canada can rip people off and not even the consumer protection agencies can help you.
Anybody else with this similar problem?

By: John Ditter

John Ditter — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 03:58:30 +0000

The Blackberry 8830 only started working in Japan in October 2008 and that was voice only. The data functions like email and web still do not work. It’s not a technical problem but rather a lack of agreements between Verizon and Japanese telco companies.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sun, 14 Sep 2008 20:28:41 +0000

Why don’t you buy a pre-paid phone for use when you go to that country? You could possibly clone the IME or what ever that thing is called

By: Stu O

Stu O — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:44:27 +0000

Verizonas a company falls way short on customer service and staff training. Bought BB8830 for trim to New Zealand. Did not work (porting incomplete) got back to the states, fixed porting, left for Costa Rica and got one Text message in two weeks of travel and multiple missed calls messages. Back to the States phone worked fine.
Moved to Cayman Islands, Verizon would not unlock phone regardless of the fact I would buy out the contract. Was told international roaming was included(NOT) So now BB is relegated to a photo album.

By: simplicity

simplicity — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 18:13:18 +0000

Doesn’t matter what you claim if the carrier doesn’t have roaming partnerships in place. AT&T is the best global provider, period. Check out gsmworld.com so you can see for yourself who has the roaming agreements for given foreign countries.

The best world Blackberry coming to market will be the BB Bold 9000. It WILL work in Japan and South Korea on UMTS 2100 MHz frequency. http://www.blackberry.com/bold

By: Robb Dunewood

Robb Dunewood — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 12:02:48 +0000

irhad,

Unfortunately you cannot use your BlackBerry 8830 on T-Mobile.

By: irhad

irhad — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:32:51 +0000

So does it work with T-Mobile or not?
I am a T-Mobile member and I just got a 8830 from a friend. IT says it is from Verizon, but I don’t know if it is compatible with T-Mobile. Any help?

By: hien

hien — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 13:06:48 +0000

8830 does not work in ghana, africa with verizon. world phone my ass. lower 8800 blackberry models work with at&t though..prob cause of sim card.

By: frank P

frank P — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:41:24 +0000

I was considering buying this phone due to it being a “world phone” and having dual CDMA and GSM capabilities. With plans on using it for business when I am in Costa Rica and Colombia.
But after reading the thread, seems that is not the case and the phone will only work on verizon’s sim card that will charge an exorbinant fee for minutes.

At this point, I am not going to risk buying it just to find out that it wont work.

Has anyone had any experience with this phone in Costa Rica or Colombia??

By: JerryZ

JerryZ — Wed, 14 May 2008 15:05:14 +0000

I bought this phone because I needed a phone that worked all over Latin America for work reasons.
But in Argentina this phone will not work no matter what, there they use the same frequecies that US uses (850/1900) so if you take there be prepared to use it as a paper weight or an alarm clock or maybe use your contacts. But that’s about it. BTW i did get them (Verizon) to unlock the phone, only to discover that I cannot possibly use it there.
And by the way Verizon customer service SUCKS to nth power.
I have very seldom (thanks GOD) encountered so utterly useless and incompetent people.