Virgin Mobile Curve 8530

[sengokubattosai]

Good morning,

I was wondering if anyone who has the Curve 8530 can tell me if Virgin Mobile locked anything on it like they do with all their other phones. My Alltel Blackberry contract is up in about a month and a half and I would like to check into the VM Curve now so I'm not waiting without a phone once it's over. I was also intrigued by their Rumor Touch, so I bought one to mess around with last weekend but already plan on returning it for a multitude of reasons.

Is the VM Curve any good? Because if VM locks anything on it (applications, ringtones, etc.) then I'm just going to forget about it and look elsewhere. As good of a deal as their plans are I do not want to pay for a limited BB experience.

Another concern is the coverage. Being on my 3rd Blackberry (Curve 8330) I love them and I love how they seem to get better reception than other phones. I know Sprint doesn't always have the best coverage in certain areas but will a VM Blackberry get more of a signal than say, a regular VM phone? I have had VM before and the coverage was absolute garbage in my parent's house (only a minor concern, being a college student 2 hours away I don't live there anymore) and a few other areas. Again, if a phone with better reception doesn't remedy the dropped calls, failed text messages and non-3G web, I will be looking elsewhere.

Thanks in advance to whatever answers you can provide!

[Nabooly]

Nothing is locked, however there is no BES with VM if you need that. All apps are available and you can downlaod anythything u want from app world.
It functions like any other bb curve out there. If you have reception everything runs perfectly. They use sprint's network so wherever you can get a signal with sprint, you will get the same thing with VM.

[rwood54741]

I just tried to active my Nextel 8350i and was told I could not do it.

[californiablackberry]

You can't that's a Nextel branded device.

[jmee2007]

So if i have a Tmo unlocked Curve, can I use the Virgin Mobile service for this phone? Or is it that only unlocked SPRINT phones work for VM??

[lak611]

Originally Posted by jmee2007

So if i have a Tmo unlocked Curve, can I use the Virgin Mobile service for this phone? Or is it that only unlocked SPRINT phones work for VM??

No. T-Mobile is a GSM carrier. Virgin Mobile USA is CDMA. You cannot use T-Mobile devices on Virgin.

You have to find out if they will add a Sprint branded device. CDMA devices are flashed not unlocked, but since Virgin sells their own BlackBerry they might not let you use a Sprint one, even though Virgin is owned by Sprint.

Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab

[mckemy05]

Acrually, Virgin Mobile has a list of MEID #'s from the Sprint network that are allowed to be used. Unfortunately these numbers are all on Virigin Mobile devices. Virgin Mobile has jsut started to release better quality smartphones and should continue releasing new phones quarterly from what I understand. If you were in Canada you would see the Bold and the Galaxy by the end of November.