Are All US Carriers giving up on Blackberry?

I have been a BB user on and off forever! I have had most of the phones and now I want to continue to support them, but its getting harder and harder... I have a business account with about 100 lines and it is with Verizon. The break down is about 35 iphones 50 Androids, and the rest just feature phones...I would love to swap out the Androids with Blackberry's and possible move some of the iphones as well..

That said, Which US Carrier will give me the best support? I don't want just one choice of BB.. Will any of them offer the full line of devices?

Verizon had the Z30 which was nice and I had it for awhile but I am hearing they might not get the Passport? If I had a carrier that would offer me the Passport, Z30,Z10, Q10 and the Classic..Is this just a pipe dream???

Yes. It is a pipe dream...
I highly doubt ANY US carrier will ever carry all of the BlackBerry devices you mentioned.

Next...

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by BobPepe

I have been a BB user on and off forever! I have had most of the phones and now I want to continue to support them, but its getting harder and harder... I have a business account with about 100 lines and it is with Verizon. The break down is about 35 iphones 50 Androids, and the rest just feature phones...I would love to swap out the Androids with Blackberry's and possible move some of the iphones as well..

That said, Which US Carrier will give me the best support? I don't want just one choice of BB.. Will any of them offer the full line of devices?

Verizon had the Z30 which was nice and I had it for awhile but I am hearing they might not get the Passport? If I had a carrier that would offer me the Passport, Z30,Z10, Q10 and the Classic..Is this just a pipe dream???

What do you mean by carrier "support"? It's more about BlackBerry support. BlackBerry needs to make a device that will work on a specific network....then you just buy it and turn it on. If BlackBerry doesn't make a CDMA (Verizon) phone then it's BlackBerry not supporting you. If ATT doesn't retail a BlackBerry phone in their store or online, as long as BlackBerry makes a GSM phone...unlocked...you simply buy it and activate on a GSM network like ATT. ATT isn't going to turn you away if you want to give them money any more than Verizon is.

It is not US carriers job to support BlackBerry. It is BlackBerry's job to get their product to US carriers.

Posted via CB10

Why shouldn't they give up on BlackBerry? What's in it for them? I'm not trying to sh*t on BlackBerry, but carrier executives are asking questions like that. It's the same question they have to answer when it comes to Microsoft and WP.

I think your best bet is AT&T, although you won't get LTE on the Z30.

In any case, you'll be on your own in terms of technical support, warranty processing, etc. BlackBerry can't force carriers to carry and fully support their products, but they can definitely improve their direct customer service so as to make it much less "scary" or risky to buy an unlocked BlackBerry and go it alone!

Posted via CB10

I just don't understand why Blackberry does some of the things it does. It's fine if they do the exclusive nonsense (which is really just saying "only one carrier was willing to carry it") but why not make at least an unlocked version that supports your frequency fully? I had a Z30 since it became available but never got to enjoy it fully because the LTE band wasn't supported by AT&T. It's a failure on Blackberrys part more than anything.

JC should simply focus on the rest of the world and leave the US market alone anyways. Plus most carriers are pushing everything Apple, why waste your time. BlackBerry's right to focus on markets where they're still respected and used. When the next big "gate" happens maybe just maybe they'd reconsider their position.....but wait.....Apple may just spin the complaints ....pH well life as normal.

Posted via CrackBerry App

Originally Posted by donnation

I just don't understand why Blackberry does some of the things it does. It's fine if they do the exclusive nonsense (which is really just saying "only one carrier was willing to carry it") but why not make at least an unlocked version that supports your frequency fully? I had a Z30 since it became available but never got to enjoy it fully because the LTE band wasn't supported by AT&T. It's a failure on Blackberrys part more than anything.

Definitely. Sounds like they were pandering to AT&T during the design phase of the Z30 (which is why we saw an early demo with an AT&T branded Z30, and there was an actual STA variant slotted for it), so they left out key AT&T LTE bands from the unlocked version,... and then AT&T changed their mind about carrying it at all.

The Passport is about as good as multi-carrier as it gets for BlackBerry (except for CDMA of course).

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by donnation

I just don't understand why Blackberry does some of the things it does. It's fine if they do the exclusive nonsense (which is really just saying "only one carrier was willing to carry it") but why not make at least an unlocked version that supports your frequency fully? I had a Z30 since it became available but never got to enjoy it fully because the LTE band wasn't supported by AT&T. It's a failure on Blackberrys part more than anything.

Yeah. I really wanted the Z30, but was told by at&t, minimal support(meaning ...you didn't buy it from at&t and you're SOL if something happens), no insurance and no LTE. But, I still see some telling other members to go ahead and get the Z30 and LTE "is" supported on at&t.

@OP, it is sad, but, no carrier is going to carry BlackBerries(for very long) if they're not selling. That's why, I bought out a local store when I purchased my Z10. ;)

Originally Posted by Blacklatino

Yeah. I really wanted the Z30, but was told by at&t, minimal support(meaning ...you didn't buy it from at&t and you're SOL if something happens), no insurance and no LTE. But, I still see some telling other members to go ahead and get the Z30 and LTE "is" supported on at&t.

It's supported in limited markets, depending on where you live. When I traveled with it I'd sporadically get LTE in some random place that I'd be visiting but in the big city I live in (and most of the country) there wasn't an LTE band supported for AT&T.

Originally Posted by AnimalPak200

Definitely. Sounds like they were pandering to AT&T during the design phase of the Z30 (which is why we saw an early demo with an AT&T branded Z30, and there was an actual STA variant slotted for it), so they left out key AT&T LTE bands from the unlocked version,... and then AT&T changed their mind about carrying it at all.

The Passport is about as good as multi-carrier as it gets for BlackBerry (except for CDMA of course).

Posted via CB10

And that's what bugs me about them. The people that purchased the Z30 through Verizon and supported Blackberry are now being punished by not being allowed to use the Passport at all. It's like they are saying "Hey thanks for buying our flagship while we're struggling but you aren't going to be allowed to use our biggest and most innovative phone we've had in years because we don't feel like making one for you."

Screw offering it through Verizon, but at least let those who want to use it on Verizon have access to it through your store. If it sells well then i think Verizon will carry it but it's kind of a slap in the face to those who want it now to make them wait for it when and if it comes to their carrier. I'm glad AT&T is supported but the non-Verizon phone is a joke.

Originally Posted by donnation

It's supported in limited markets, depending on where you live. When I traveled with it I'd sporadically get LTE in some random place that I'd be visiting but in the big city I live in (and most of the country) there wasn't an LTE band supported for AT&T.

The Houston, Dallas-Ft. Worth, and Austin areas would be fine. But, I have twenty counties that I conduct investigations that is located between the three cities.

Tell your Verizon business rep you want passports for 50 lines. (or whatever phone you want) and tell us what they say.

Posted via CB10

USA carriers don't care much about BlackBerry because they owe Apple/Samsung big time. Do you know why every time you walked in to US carrier stores the only advertising signs you see are Apple/Samsung? Because these carriers are tied up the contract with them big time. They have to sale more of their phones. Now, you know when you walk in to their stores the sale associate push you to buy Iphone/Galaxy more than any other brands.

Originally Posted by donnation

And that's what bugs me about them. The people that purchased the Z30 through Verizon and supported Blackberry are now being punished by not being allowed to use the Passport at all. It's like they are saying "Hey thanks for buying our flagship while we're struggling but you aren't going to be allowed to use our biggest and most innovative phone we've had in years because we don't feel like making one for you."

Screw offering it through Verizon, but at least let those who want to use it on Verizon have access to it through your store. If it sells well then i think Verizon will carry it but it's kind of a slap in the face to those who want it now to make them wait for it when and if it comes to their carrier. I'm glad AT&T is supported but the non-Verizon phone is a joke.

Yeah, I had to switch. Luckily we now have good ATT coverage in the region. Frankly Verizon's model of restricting device access to their network is definitely outdated, so whatever. Can't blame BlackBerry if Verizon didn't commit to at least allow the Passport on their network (which would mean Verizon would have to provide support for it).

For what it's worth, I should point out that I'm still waiting for my second Passport (wife took the first one), and the Verizon Z30 gets sufficient 4G speeds on AT&T for all my mobile internet uses. Maybe I'm just in a good area:

Attachment 306726

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by donnation

I just don't understand why Blackberry does some of the things it does. It's fine if they do the exclusive nonsense (which is really just saying "only one carrier was willing to carry it") but why not make at least an unlocked version that supports your frequency fully? I had a Z30 since it became available but never got to enjoy it fully because the LTE band wasn't supported by AT&T. It's a failure on Blackberrys part more than anything.

There's a lot we don't know. Maybe AT&T would only agree to carry it if BlackBerry agreed to not make a Verizon-compatible version, and they had to choose the lesser of two evils.

Posted via CB10

Originally Posted by webber27

There's a lot we don't know. Maybe AT&T would only agree to carry it if BlackBerry agreed to not make a Verizon-compatible version, and they had to choose the lesser of two evils.

Posted via CB10

No. Handsets can only operate on Verizon's CDMA network if they are authorized and provisioned by Verizon. You can't just make a cdma device and use it on Verizon, without their authorization. They will only authorize a handset, if they are willing to provide full support for it. They will only provide full support for it (and the costs of printing materials for it, training, etc), if they feel it will be worth it to their bottom line (i.e. It will sell enough to justify the cost).

Long story short, Verizon didn't think enough Passport's would be sold to justify the cost for them, therefore they didn't commit to support and order a large enough number of CDMA Passport's that would make it feasible to make by BlackBerry, therefore BlackBerry did not make a batch of CDMA devices that would essentially be unusable.

Posted via CB10

I think there is enough blame to be passed around for all parties concerned, Blackberry and all the carriers for lack of support and marketing here in the USA.

Everyone is quick to forget when Blackberry had 50% of the smartphone market share here and made a **** load of money back then.

Blackberry executives got rich and times where good, but we all know what happened then.

Now it's going to be harder to reintroduce the brand here because they haven't been a legitimate contender for some time now and most folks have forgot about them and moved on.

I believe there still is a niche group of dedicated Blackberry users here. One of the carrier issues would be Verizon is still CDMA technology and the rest of the carriers here and the world for that matter are GSM.

I don't think it would be in Blackberry's best interest to make a specific model for Verizon. Maybe in the near future when they decide to convert to an all GSM network, then reintroduce the new Blackberry product line to them.

For now AT&T seems to be the only carrier willing to support the brand here. I would love the see T Mobile and Blackberry kiss and make up because they where the biggest supporter of the brand here for years.

Oh well, only time will tell and for me, I will either continue to buy from Blackberry USA online or go to Canada and buy one from our neighbors to the north.

Now it's just a wait and see concept and as long as T Mobile continues to let my Blackberry connect on their network, I will stick with the brand here.

If and when there ever comes a time when the carrier decide to not support Blackberry on their network, then it will be time to look at other options, so far my Blackberry z30 and passport are working fine and that's all I can ask for.

Originally Posted by crackberry_geek

It is not US carriers job to support BlackBerry. It is BlackBerry's job to get their product to US carriers.

Posted via CB10

Who then don't order it, and stick any stock they do get on the bottom shelf of the closet in the back room... behind the mop bucket.




Posted via CB10

Can't forget...Verizon won't let a phone not SOLD by them on their network. Even if BB made a CDMA version of the Passport...Verizon won't let it on their network.

Here is where John Chen is a genius in my opinion...Classic battle of wills...

Making the EZ Pass so affordable for companies to flip to BES...they have over 3 million new licenses...nearly 1 million that switched to BB from another platform. You really think the carriers are going to let those devices provided by companies just walk on the cell phone service? Not likely...

BYOD to work changed a lot of things too...It's just a different landscape for Blackberry...and those of us stuck on Verizon (temporarily) will just have to decide. Click on the Wireless community within the Verizon Wireless website under Blackberry....it is FILLED with disgruntled customers.

I basically did say that to him... He said he would look into it...But he really has no clue..