I recently purchased a Nextel Blackberry 7520 off of eBay. I poped my SIM card in it and used it for about 2 weeks. I liked it alot but since I didn't have a Blackberry or data plan I couldn't do a whole helluva lot with it.

I've decided to get a Boost Starter Kit and use my Blackbery as a Boostberry. My understanding is that with Boost I could use a 3rd party browser, such as Opera Mini 3 which I already have installed, and other 3rd party apps, like iMobileMail or Ramble IM.

Is this essentially correct? Is there anything else I need to know? Do I need service books or anything else on the device to be able to use Opera Mini or other apps? Thanks everyone! And just FYI, I did search and research this a bit but just wanted to clarify my understanding.

...I believe that this is correct. You can access the Internet by setting the right proxy settings in the browser.

You won't be able to use such functions as push email, OTA calendar sync, or BB messenger.

Ok cool. I realize that I won't be able to use specific Blackberry features, but as long as I can browse the web and stuff like that I'm happy.

If you get it working please let me know. I have been trying to do the same thing but with no luck. I will have to look into the browser proxy settings. Thats a new one I hadn't heard?

What problems have you been having with it? I've read a bunch of other threads on other forums where people have gotten this to work. All they did was insert the Boost SIM and install the apps, and away they went.

My starter kit should arrive in the mail sometime this afternoon. Hopefully all goes well.

Well I thought I may have had an IT policy on it but I'm not sure. It says default for IT. It says it has opera mini in the apps page but I have no way to open it. There is no icon for it on the main screen. I ended up buying a boost phone until I can get this working.

I think that if it says default for IT, then you do have an IT policy. If there's no mention of it, then you don't. I'm not 100% sure though.

If you have the Blackberry Desktop Manager I'd try to remove and uninstall Opera, and then reinstall it. If that still doesn't work then I don't know what else to do.

I guess I got really lucky with buying my phone off eBay. It looked as if it hadn't been updated since 04, and hadn't been used to make a phone call since 06. It had no IT policy, no nothing. I've already installed Opera, iMobileMail, and Ramble IM. Everything shows up and works as good as it can w/o a SIM card.

My Boost Starter Kit should show up in the next 2-4 hrs. I guess I'll let you know if it works out. I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Your icon for the opera mini may be hidden. Maybe you installed a version too new for that berry. Get 3.1 or 4.0.

Well my starter kit never showed up. If it doesn't show up by Saturday, I think the wonderful Post Office lost my package. We'll see...

SUCCESS!

My kit showed up yesterday. After registering everything at boost.com I put in the SIM. After a few minutes everything was booted up and the reception showed all capital letters (NXTL). So far everything has worked perfectly. I browsed on Opera for about an hour, setting up bookmarks and things like that.

I checked my email with iMobileMail. I really like it becuase it doesn't actually pull the email out of my mailbox, it only downloads a copy.

I also had a convo on Ramble IM with someone for over an hour.

Overall everything worked perfectly! This is by far the best $37 I've ever spent ($25 for 7520 w/shipping, $12 for Boost Starter Kit w/shipping, both from eBay).

Did you sign up for the 35 cent a day data plan?

Doh! I didn't have the policy file where it was supposed to be. Once I fixed that opera went into setup on it's own. I need a drink now. Only been messing with this for a few weeks. So what other apps should I install? Later!

With boost you don't really need to sign up for the data plan, OperaMini works without it. Though the one thing that sucks is that you can't download ringtones or wallpapers using OperaMini, well atleast not with mine because it needs to use the regular BB browser to download content(ringtones, wallpapers etc...) and my bb doesn't have the regular browser. Though I still don't think it would dl anything if I did have it.

Hi, im trying to do what you did, I purchased a blackberry 7520 off ebay and im trying to make it a boostberry. I have the desktop software, and hand held software. I just dont have any clue about how to do any of it. If you could please help me I would really be greatfull. thanx

My kit showed up yesterday. After registering everything at boost.com I put in the SIM. After a few minutes everything was booted up and the reception showed all capital letters (NXTL). So far everything has worked perfectly. I browsed on Opera for about an hour, setting up bookmarks and things like that.

I checked my email with iMobileMail. I really like it becuase it doesn't actually pull the email out of my mailbox, it only downloads a copy.

I also had a convo on Ramble IM with someone for over an hour.

Overall everything worked perfectly! This is by far the best $37 I've ever spent ($25 for 7520 w/shipping, $12 for Boost Starter Kit w/shipping, both from eBay).[/quote]

Do you have a Boost sim card yet? If so just pop it in and go. The only problem I had was my phone had an IT policy still on it. Essentially it was locked so I couldn't add any 3rd party apps or even use the opera mini that was already on the phone. Hopefully you won't have that issue.

I have to thank you, for all the great advice in this forum. With the assistance of you all I was able to convert a 7520 into a boostberry as easy as poping in the boost sim and installing opera mini on it.
However MMS and text message does not work I'm still looking for a workarround this issue, even if it means upgrading the BB. Was anyone sucessful on that?

if you go to ebay and type boostberry in the search field it should come up with a couple of discs. these discs have everything you need. i just reconfigured my 7520 about 10 minutes ago. it took about an hour. these discs are 10.99 with free shipping. it has all updated os and service books along with some other helpful apps. we also did my wife's 7100i with the same disc. everything works great.

the disc i refered to also has programs to remove it restrictions

If you type 'boostberry' into Ebay it changes to 'gooseberry' no matter how you put it in probably better just to google it?