Buying a 9900 in the US and use it in Germany

**ShamrockRagEll** · 03-06-2012, 08:07 PM

Hey there,

I guess this question has been asked before, but I couldn't find the answer I was looking for.

I've been living in New York for 4 months and I'll be staying for another 3 months before returning to Germany to graduate. I currently have an iPhone 3gs and besides it's about to die, I'm really bored of iPhones and I was always fascinated by BBs.

I planned to get the 9900/9930 (which I guess would both work in Germany?) for the no-commitment price, since I can't go with a 2-year plan.

Will I be able to use all BB services in the US with a pay as you go plan? What about Germany?

Will I have any advantages with T-Mobile since it exists in Germany too?

I planned to buy it in the Sprint/At&t/t-mobile/etc. store. Would you rather buy it online if you were me?

The reason why I don't want to wait till I go back to Germany and just buy it there is, that I will probably come back to the US to work here.

Thanks in advance!

**mitchy_mitch** · 03-07-2012, 12:16 AM

Good news. All the phones will work in Germany since all you need is HSDPA 2100. I think I would probably settle with a 9900 since I like T-mobile's American service best. But, it all depends on where you are going to be in America and who has the best plan for you.

**mitchy_mitch** · 03-07-2012, 12:21 AM

PS.... Careful when buying a 9930. You may buy a CDMA phone.You must buy the GSM version. CDMA phones will not work well in the EU

**Slash82** · 03-07-2012, 08:39 AM

Hallo!
Ich nehme an, dass Du deutsch sprichst, nachdem Du wieder zurück nach Deutschland gehst...

Wenn Du Dir ein Bold kaufen willst, dann NUR das 9900, denn es ist ein GSM-Telefon.
Das 9930 ist ein CDMA-Telefon (was nur US und ein paar anderen Ländern standard ist).
In Deutschland nutzen wir GSM.

Es ist kein Problem ein Bold in den USA zu kaufen und hier zu benutzen, denn es läuft auf "allen" GSM-Bänden ohne Probleme.

Du kannst auch alle Vorteile nutzen, Du musst es nur bei Deinem Dienstanbieter richtig anmelden - also mit Vertrag und Blackberryoption.

LG,

Slash

**ShamrockRagEll** · 03-07-2012, 10:31 AM

That's good to know, thanks guys!

@ Danke auch an dich, werde dann das 9900 nehmen ;-)

Alright then I'm gonna reach out for the 9900. I asked in several stores if they sell unlocked phones and I always got told no. So I figured out, that the BB for the no-commitment fee is not necessary unlocked a the same time.

Since the BB then is bound to ATT/T-Mob/wherever you buy it, I guess I have to unlock it/get it unlocked when I go back to Germany, right? How much does that process usually cost?

I'm completely new to the BB world, so I'm wondering if I can get those special BB features like push etc. in my last three months here in the US. That's what I heard and please correct me if I'm wrong: I got a sim card from T-mobile and paid 60 dollars a month for free texting, surfing with a certain amount of traffic and unlimited minutes. When it comes to a BB I have to pay additional fees, is that correct? If yes, how do I manage getting them for such a short period of time like 3 months here, 3 month in germany and than coming back to the US again.

**SPNKr** · 03-07-2012, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by ShamrockRagEll

That's good to know, thanks guys!

@ Danke auch an dich, werde dann das 9900 nehmen ;-)

Alright then I'm gonna reach out for the 9900. I asked in several stores if they sell unlocked phones and I always got told no. So I figured out, that the BB for the no-commitment fee is not necessary unlocked a the same time.

Since the BB then is bound to ATT/T-Mob/wherever you buy it, I guess I have to unlock it/get it unlocked when I go back to Germany, right? How much does that process usually cost?

I'm completely new to the BB world, so I'm wondering if I can get those special BB features like push etc. in my last three months here in the US. That's what I heard and please correct me if I'm wrong: I got a sim card from T-mobile and paid 60 dollars a month for free texting, surfing with a certain amount of traffic and unlimited minutes. When it comes to a BB I have to pay additional fees, is that correct? If yes, how do I manage getting them for such a short period of time like 3 months here, 3 month in germany and than coming back to the US again.

Unlocking shouldn't cost more than a few dollars (maybe 10?) I paid to have my Storm 2 for Verizon unlocked so my friend could use it on T-mo and it cost me about 7.99 if I recall correctly. If you do a quick search here you could find a few unlocking service providers or recommendations for some.

**darth1sbw** · 05-11-2012, 11:54 AM

Careful: if you aren't going with a contract carrier that provides cell service IN Germany (such as T-mobile Germany) and if you plan to use pre-paid SIMs do not go with a BlackBerry (that kills me to say).

When you put a pre-paid SIM in a GSM BlackBerry you lose all your service books, and will not be able to receive your mail and use some other features on the phone. This happened to me a few months ago.

Since an iPhone doesn't rely on the service books, you can pop in any SIM - pre-paid or carrier - and the iPhone will work the same.

If you are going to sign a cell phone company contract in Germany, then by all means stay loyal to the BlackBerry