Sprint account with spending limit=no international use of phone?

Well sprint approved me for a line of service but it has a $150 spending limit.As a result I was told by a rep in their international roaming services department that I wouldn't be able to activate the international roaming on any of their world phone,is this true? This concerns me as I was interested in a BB tour if this is true what can I do to use my BB overseas? Also being the BB tour offers an unlocked sim card slot and is quad-band GSM does this mean its a true "world phone" like the AT&T BB I have now?

Could I purchase a prepaid sim online and be ready to go when I get there? What is a good source for prepaid sims online that offer voice/data? I want to switch to sprint due yo coverage and other issues with AT&T but don't want to loose my international roaming abilities.

Originally Posted by 1911luver

Well sprint approved me for a line of service but it has a $150 spending limit.As a result I was told by a rep in their international roaming services department that I wouldn't be able to activate the international roaming on any of their world phone,is this true? This concerns me as I was interested in a BB tour if this is true what can I do to use my BB overseas? Also being the BB tour offers an unlocked sim card slot and is quad-band GSM does this mean its a true "world phone" like the AT&T BB I have now?

Could I purchase a prepaid sim online and be ready to go when I get there? What is a good source for prepaid sims online that offer voice/data? I want to switch to sprint due yo coverage and other issues with AT&T but don't want to loose my international roaming abilities.

If you can unlock the phone you can use any sim card you want.

You can still use a sim card because all Sprint phones are unlocked. The only problem is that Sprint doesn't trust you enough with international roaming, which means you won't be able to get their international roaming plan (e.g., their data plan). The sim card you get will hopefully provide data capabilities.

it is common for all carriers to initially restrict international roaming.. given that the chargebacks by other carriers are not immediate it would be very easy to go way over the spending limit and then the carrier could be left holding the bill as the customer walks way..

of course this does not help decent people..lol

a good source for sim cards I have used many times is International Cell Phones, World Phones, SIM Cards, Satellite Phones

I just found out I have the same problem with my account. After much yelling I was given a $20 a month credit for 2 years so I'm not really paying for my data plan anymore. Hopefully one of these prepaid sim cards will work for me.

Its funny because AT&T doesn't do this they activated my line and not long after I took a trip and my international data and voice worked fine. All I did was power up my phone and it searched and found a signal to use,that was it.

International roaming fees are prohibitive. The way to go is to buy a local SIM card and insert it in your Tour. Believe me, you don't want to pay international roaming fees; they are very pricey. For example, it costs me $1.29 a minute to use international roaming. But if you buy a local SIM card, you can take advantage of local rates. Someone in this forum said that all Sprint's phones are unlocked. This is very untrue. Sprint is a CDMA carrier. Therefore, most of their phones don't even have SIM cards. That's precisely why the Tour is a big deal for Sprint users; it is one of the few phones capable of International use. Now, every Tom, Rick and Harry assumes that all the Blackberry Tours were unlocked prior to shipment to customers. Again, this is untrue. I know first-hand that the first batch of Sprint Tours that shipped were not unlocked. I had to call to have mine unlocked, and I was told that some of the earlier ones where not unlocked. Mine was among the locked ones. It is definitely safe practice to call your service provider before travelling to make certain that your Tour is unlocked.

The bottomline is that you are not missing much. Depending on how soon after you activate your account with Sprint you decide to travel, they might relent and activate international roaming for you. But I am willing to bet that you won't use it in any case.

Originally Posted by Barredbard

International roaming fees are prohibitive. The way to go is to buy a local SIM card and insert it in your Tour. Believe me, you don't want to pay international roaming fees; they are very pricey. For example, it costs me $1.29 a minute to use international roaming. But if you buy a local SIM card, you can take advantage of local rates. Someone in this forum said that all Sprint's phones are unlocked. This is very untrue. Sprint is a CDMA carrier. Therefore, most of their phones don't even have SIM cards. That's precisely why the Tour is a big deal for Sprint users; it is one of the few phones capable of International use. Now, every Tom, Rick and Harry assumes that all the Blackberry Tours were unlocked prior to shipment to customers. Again, this is untrue. I know first-hand that the first batch of Sprint Tours that shipped were not unlocked. I had to call to have mine unlocked, and I was told that some of the earlier ones where not unlocked. Mine was among the locked ones. It is definitely safe practice to call your service provider before travelling to make certain that your Tour is unlocked.

The bottomline is that you are not missing much. Depending on how soon after you activate your account with Sprint you decide to travel, they might relent and activate international roaming for you. But I am willing to bet that you won't use it in any case.

It's not really that big of a deal, lest you forget that Sprint had the 8830, which was also a world phone.

As far as the phone being locked, it's definitely best to check. I had one of the first Tours, (purchased on the release date 07/12/2009, manfactured on 07/09/2009) and it was locked. After a week of arguing with incompetent Sprint techs (who insisted the phone was unlocked, although never physically seeing the phone) they finally admitted the first batch was f'ed up by RIM and had to give me an unlock code. This being said, the newer batch of Tours from Sprint are unlocked. My second, and current Tour was manfactured on 10/20/2009 and came unlocked. I also have friends who bought the Tour in the past two months and their phones are unlocked.

Originally Posted by cire0309

It's not really that big of a deal, lest you forget that Sprint had the 8830, which was also a world phone.

As far as the phone being locked, it's definitely best to check. I had one of the first Tours, (purchased on the release date 07/12/2009, manfactured on 07/09/2009) and it was locked. After a week of arguing with incompetent Sprint techs (who insisted the phone was unlocked, although never physically seeing the phone) they finally admitted the first batch was f'ed up by RIM and had to give me an unlock code. This being said, the newer batch of Tours from Sprint are unlocked. My second, and current Tour was manfactured on 10/20/2009 and came unlocked. I also have friends who bought the Tour in the past two months and their phones are unlocked.

I am not sure how your opinion differs from mine; it seems to reiterate everything I said. And I did mention that Sprint has a few phones capable of international usage. That includes the 8830 World Edition which I did not forget; I replaced mine with the Tour. It doesn't even bear mentioning because it is outdated and so obvioulsy supplanted by the Tour. You couldn't buy one from Sprint right now if you tried. By my count Sprint has about 5 phones capable of international calling. I think it is a big deal for people who didn't know that.