When you wipe your handheld, you just wipe your service book with it, That's why the handset doesn't work.

If the problem is only in downloading service book, though, you dont need your own dataplan. you can get around that by borrowing someone's BB-dataplan-enabled SIMcard and push your service book (From BIS, for example) then switch back to your no-data-plan card.

I operate some 100+ blackberry and myself use an 8320 curve.

We use 4 different carriers (Singtel, Starhub, Indosat, Telkomsel) in two different countries.

For price reason (Singtel and Starhub bundles their BB with plan, the other two doesnt) we got most of our handset from Singtel and Starhub (and one vodaphone, one Tmobile, you got the idea), but we use it fine in other networks.

We often have to activate handset with simcard from different carrier, and often activate multiple handset using the same card, the IT staff's (in turns). We sometimes does this EVEN BEFORE we got the data card that will finally be used to run the service.

a few days ago I tried turning off my mobile network and leave my curve on wifi only. It stops receiving email for a while, but after some 30 minutes, it starts getting email again. from BES and from BIS-enabled-Gmail. (Let me retest that now.)

So, I don't think you need a dataplan to get email, you just need to know someone who does. What you need is a PIN, that comes with each blackberry. Use that PIN to activate your BIS, and you're set.