[ShamrockRagEll]

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]

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]

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]

Hallo!
Ich nehme an, dass Du deutsch sprichst, nachdem Du wieder zur�ck 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 L�ndern standard ist).
In Deutschland nutzen wir GSM.

Es ist kein Problem ein Bold in den USA zu kaufen und hier zu benutzen, denn es l�uft auf "allen" GSM-B�nden 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]

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]

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]

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