I purchased a Blackberry Pearl from Cingular on a prepaid plan. I had the phone unlocked using services from NewMobileFreedom. The phone was unlocked successfully.

I am in India now on a visit and I signed for BIS services with a local service provider. I am not able to register on their site. The message I get is that the instrument is registered with some other service provider i.e., Cingular. I checked with the local service provider and they state that while the instrument has been unlocked successfully, it also needs to de-registered from Cingular. Only then, I will be able to avail BIS service from any other service provider.

Can anyone throw light on this ?. Thanks in advance.

Wirelessly posted (8700g: BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

You said you have a prepaid plan with Cingular, but the BlackBerry is unlocked? You must have the BlackBerry data plan with the carrier to which the SIM is registered--this case your SIM is still with cingy if you have a prepaid plan with them.

JSanders... If I understand you correctly, it is not enough if I unlock the instrument. I also need to unlock with Cingular ?. Currently, I am able to use the instrument with SIM Cards of other service providers.

Unlocking the device has nothing to do with BIS. BIS is included as part of your data plan.
If you want to use BIS, you need a BlackBerry Data Plan provisioned on your SIM card.
To my knowledge, there are no prepaid cards or pay-as-you-go services that support the BlackBerry Data Plan, so the original owner must've had a BB Data Plan at some point.

If you have a BlackBerry Data Plan, and you are unable to register your device, it could be that the previous owner never "de-registered" the device from their Cingular BIS account. You'd need to call your carrier, or call Cingular to have them free up the device so it can be used on some other BIS.

I purchased this phone from Cingular on a purely pre paid deal. I am not sure whether there was any previous owner or not. Now I am at a place not covered by Cingular.
Can you explain how my current carrier can free up the device ?. I am using their SIM for voice calls and I have signed up for their data plan. I am just not being able to register for BIS.

This has nothing to with a previous owner. If you purchased it from Cingular as you clearly stated, one would assume there was no previous owner (although they have been know to re-sell used devices--this is not the problem in your case).

As i stated in my first post--you cannot have a pre-paid voice plan with Cingular and BB Data Plan or BIS with another carrier in India. Notwithstanding what Penguin stated, the two do have something to do with each other, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE PREPAID CINGULAR VOICE, you will not be able to get the Data Plan (hence BIS) from another carrier.

Get your voice and data plan with the same carrier.

Unfortunately I can't.
You'll need to call your carrier and explain your situation.
I'm sure they'll be able to help more than anyone here.

JSanders... sorry for persisting. The situation is like this.

1. I have a prepaid plan with Cingular and that expires by 12th June (I purchased the phone with bare minimum prepaid minutes and they expire in a month).

2. I also have a voice and data plan with the same service provider in India. I repeat, I have a voice and data plan from the same carrier in India. Voice plan works very well since the phone has been unlocked. However, I am stuck on the BIS despite signing up on the data plan.

Either my current carrier does something about this or I wait for the Cingular prepaid to expire and hope things will change.

You have a very screwed up situation then, with two carriers on one phone.
I do agree with Penguin, then as well. Call your carrier and explain what you need them to do.

I spoke to my service provider.They state that my BB PIN is locked to Cingular and they cannot release the same. Until it is released, I cannot register for BIS through them even though I have signed for Voice and Data Plan.
I sent a email to Cingular and they have refused to release stating atleast 90 days should be completed on a pre paid phone.
I am in India and likely to return to US only in August. I am going to try again with Cingular. The funny part is even if they agree and provide me with Unlock code, it is of no use since my phone is already unlocked. I am asking them for unlock code more for releasing the PIN in their database than for really unlocking the device.

sbalakr3 - Yup, looks like a PIN issue.
The PIN needs to be deregistered with Cingular's BIS frontend.
This is usually done when changing handhelds, so maybe you should persist with Cingular, and have them deregister the PIN from RIM's BIS database as it's hardware you own & have completely paid for?

Having said that, does any provider in India allow BB data while roaming on a US BlackBerry? CDMA or GSM?
Reason I ask is I am off for a business trip to India next month, and though I have the VZW BlackBerry 8830 complete with SIM card/Global kit as well as the Global BlackBerry Data Plan ($64.99 a month) I've heard horror stories of BB data in India even though there seems to be a comprehensive, high tech network of CDMA as well as GSM providers there...

Any insight, as well as real world experience from those BB users who've traveled there, would be appreciated.

Ofelas.... If you will be on a GSM Network in India, you will definitely get BB services. My friends coming from US, use their BB in India without any issues. I will advice you to check with Verizon on who they have tied with in India (Airtel or Hutch). For local calls, purchase an inexpensive phone in India and get prepaid minutes. Works out cheap.

To the OP. Call Cingular. If you bought it from them but the pin is registered to someone else then they should be able to help you. It could even be possible it's registered to you under another email address. I repeat, call Cingular and see if they can straighten it out. You may need to wait the 90 days but maybe you can get past that if you talk to them on the phone.

Hi... I persisted with Cingular and they have issued the unlocking code to me. THe code they issued and the one I used earlier to unlock are one and the same. Since, my BB is already unlocked I have left it as it is. But I am still unable to sign for BIS with my service provider in India.
My impression was, once Cingular releases the unlock code, they will also release the PIN # from their database. Since I continue to have a Prepaid SIM issued by Cingular, should I also close that ?.

Once again... unlocking your phone has NOTHING to do with BIS or your PIN. It will not automatically "release your PIN" for use on another network.
You need to specifically ask Cingular to release your PIN.

Forget about the pre-paid SIM card. It's meaningless. No data, nothing to do with your PIN, not tied to your Blackberry device in any way. Pre-paid SIM cards from cingular are only for voice. It's not even worth talking about as it doesn't relate to your problem at all.

Call Cingular... ask them to release your PIN and fix this issue for you.

Call Cingular and ask them to delete the BIS account that is currently associated with your BB device PIN. When this is done and you put in a SIM card with a BlackBerry data plan you will be able to register the device.

Hi... I checked by doing the following.

1. I tried registering (only tried) on mycingular.blackberry.com. When I entered the PIN # and IMEI #, the site warned that "my device has not been registered in the netowrk and that I should do the same before continuing". That means my device has not been registered with Cingular. (I aborted the registration at that stage)

2. I wrote to Cingular and they confirm that they do not find my PIN # active. They have suggested that I contact Blackberry directly.

What should I do now ? I purchased the device from Cingular and from their shop.

Hey I have exactly the same situation but everything works fine.
I had a locked cingular phone which my friend brought from US. which i unlocked using one of the sponsors of this forum. Then i put my indian sim and asked my operator to add BIS to my plan and everything works.
Who is your indian operator?
Is it a prepaid or post paid plan?

I have a post paid voice and data plan with Airtel in India.

Ok well this is what i think the problem is. It has got nothing to do with a pre paid or post paid plan of cingular.

Your phone has been registered with blackberry.net (this is through which BIS works). All BIS wether in India or anywhere else has to go through the same blackberry.net server. So two BIS services on same phone cannot operate at the same time. You have to deactivate the Cingular Blackberry service. Simply call them and ask them to do it right away. They have to do it. They cannot say no to you. You can ask for a service to be deactivated any time even if you have paid for it. Thats your right.