Hey, I'm considering buying an unlocked GSM BlackBerry 8100 smartphone. I live in The Bahamas and the prices are ridiculous for the blackberry devices and services. I do have a gsm sim card but I was wondering if all of the features of a BlackBerry would be available to me if i purchased the 8100 and just slipped my SIM card in. Or would it just have the features of a normal cell phone? Thanks in advance!

Unless you have a BB data plan on that sim card you will only have normal cell phone features. No data plan--no email, internet, or data. You can SMS but that's about it.

You must have a BB data plan to use the internet and email and MMS. By just moving your SIM card over, you'll have phone and text messaging, that's it.

my tmo contract expires in a few days.

i am currently using a 7290, but desperately want a pearl. i also have a cell on verizon, and would finally like to combine the two.

if i buy a pearl, is there any way to unlock it and use it on verizon? if not, is there any chance verizon will be getting pearls?

thanks!

Don't think this will work. Verizon uses CDMA.

NO!!!!! verizon is CDMA and tmobile is GSM, which means when you buy a phone from sprint or verizon you have to stay with that phone until you either lose it or buy a whole new phone. thats what i like about GSM.