[Bibble]

Firstly, forgive me if I am posting this in the wrong part of the forum, I am new here.

I have been traveling/studying in Europe for about 2 months now and decided I wanted a Blackberry I could use over here for my birthday. My family is on Verizon, so I decided on the sexy 9530. I asked my mother to please pick one up from the local Verizon store and have them set it up for me so that it would work in Europe upon arrival. Unfortunately, she neglected to do this upon the reassurances of the retailer, who said that all she had to do was ship it and let him know when I had it in my hands here.

It arrived today in a pristine, unopened box. Much to my dismay, though not to my surprise, it the phone displayed only a red SOS where I assume the network is usually shown. I shot an e-mail to my mother to call the Verizon guy, which she did. He told her that he had activated it, and that now all I have to do is go to any wireless store like Orange or Vodafone and ask them to activate it in Europe.

Is this procedure going to work or is this Verizon dude full of ****? I called Verizon Wireless, and the dude there said there is nothing I can do except send it back to the US and have them activate it there, and then ship it back here. He also said that if I wanted to use it just for voice I look online for an unlock code and buy a SIM card here.

Please tell me what to believe.

[EddyEC]

If you want to use the BIS, you must talk to verizon, and tell them to release your PIN, then go to the carrier you want, and ask them to do whatever they need to, to make it work. That's what I am going to do tomorrow.

[mtyeterian]

Your phone is not unlocked. You need to call Verizon and tell them to unlock it for all SIM cards globally. They'll give you a code you'll put into the phone. Don't buy any unlock code from the Internet!
After that, any SIM card is good to go. Just get a plan with Orange, Vodafone, etc. and take the card out of the cheap phone they do (or don't) give you, and put it in the Storm.
Finally, on the phone, set it to use just GSM, as there's no CDMA in UK anyway....

[Bibble]

mtyeterian, I do not wish to unlock my phone or use another carrier's SIM card. I simply want to activate my phone without having to ship it back to the US.

[EddyEC]

Oh. I thought you wanted to use it with another carrier.
Maybe you should contact Verizon yourself.

[Bibble]

I did contact Verizon. I have two Verizon guys telling me two different stories. I wish to know which one is the truth: will a wireless store here in Switzerland be willing/able to activate my phone, or do I have to ship it back to the US?

[EddyEC]

I would go try in Switzerland, then if it didn't work, ship it back...

[snork]

what vzw is saying doesnt sound unreasonable. i'd goto a vodafone store if i were you though. VZW is partially owned by vodafone so thats probably your best bet in getting setup for international calling.

[EddyEC]

Yes, that option also works. Verizon is being very unreasonable.

[pkcable]

Vodafone should be able to set you up, they are VZW's parent company. Go to the Vodafone store, and they can probably call VZW and get the PIN released and then activate a vodafone plan for you.

Another option would be to activate the phone for Verizon, but get the global plan. You should be able to activate it thru the internet or via a phone call. Vodafone is probably your best bet, as they are related to Verizon.

EDIT: Don't buy an unlock code, as long as your family has been Verizon customers in good standing for 2 months or more the code should be freely given by Verizon.

[EddyEC]

I completely agree with you^. Even with the full stops and commas.

[Bibble]

Just to provide an update, I called Verizon Global support a third time in hopes of having my Storm unlocked in order to avoid having to have to ship it back. I have no idea what he did, but I did a battery pull upon his instruction, and when my Storm started back up it connected to the network no problem. Soon I was experiencing sexy 3G, courtesy of Orange. This is after going to three wireless stores here in Switzerland and talking to 3 Verizon reps, all of whom said they could not help me. Hooray for Thomas of Verizon Global support!

[paulkalman]

I just went through this for the second time with Verizon, all you need to do is find another phone and with the included card (read the instructions carefully) call them (the card is a way for you not to pay for the call) it takes about 10 minutes for them to activate it. The real reason for this is that because verizon is a cdma company, they block the gsm in the usa , this prevents the local office from activating your gsm card. no big deal but they really should tell the unsuspecting public the truth.