[ot66]

I need some help here folks. I have spent countless hours trying to find a solution to the following problem;

I am currently in an area that has NO cell phone coverage. I will be here at least until June 2010 possibly another year. I want to get a Blackberry again, but I certainly need one with WIFI. I am in Ontario, Canada so as you may know, Rogers did not enable their 9700 as UMA/Talkspot Compatible, Bell and Telus do not currently offer UMA I have no idea what that future looks like.

I called Cincinnati Bell today and it appears as if I could get their 9700 when it is released, get a basic phone plan along with "unlimited long distance and roaming in Canada" and add Fusion WIFI to the plan. That way I should be able to use my BBerry data (browsing, BB messenger, etc.) and voice over WIFI. Does anyone see any potential problems with this solution? I know I would have a US number so my friends calling me would get hit with long distance. If I am texting friends in Canada does anyone know if they will be charged extra to text me?

Once I return home and am back in a cell service area, will it be possible to unlock my Cincinnati 9700 and put a Rogers or Bell sim in it and then sign up with them?

Thanks so much in advance for the help. I need to understand all of the details because when I am home at Christmas I want to know for sure if this solution will work before returning to the "NORTH" for the rest of the year.

[tonybunce]

That should work but there are a few issues that you should be aware of:
-It doesn't look like Cincinnati Bell is going to be launching the 9700 until sometime in January
-An unlocked UMA phone won't connect to a different UMA network. So you can use it for cell service but the UMA servers are hard coded into the device so if Rogers or Bell launch UMA service I don't think it is going to work.

[Username5300]

Your other issue is making sure both networks are compatible. I know Cincinnati Bell is a GSM carrier, don't know about tose two.