I have an 8830 from Canada that was on carrier Bell Mobility. I am now in the US and would like to switch it to Verizon. I tried wiping the device and installing the verizon code (hiding vendor.xml), but I don't think that is all I need to do. It still shows the Bell splash screen at startup.
I used javaloader to wipe and re-install. I see if I do a javaloader -u -deviceinfo it shows the vendor ID of the blackberry is 109 (that would be a HEX 6D which is Bell Mobility). I would like to change the hardware vendor ID of the actual device to 105 (HEX 69 which is Verizon).

1. Can you actually change the ID on the device to make it look like it came from another carrier?
2. Is this wise? Is there any hardware or other differences in devices from different carriers?

much thanks.

Wirelessly posted (8320: BlackBerry8320/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Check the FAQ for how to unlock a device..

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Splash screen and carrier branding cannot be removed it is imbedded into the firmware

Wirelessly posted (8320: BlackBerry8320/4.2.2 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

Oh sorry.. I guess I misunderstood the question..

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8800/4.2.1 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/100)

You can unlock the verizon theme!

I assume that your Bell BB is CDMA. If it is GSM, then there is no way to activate a GSM phone on a CDMA network.

However, if it is CDMA, Verizon will not activate a non-Verizon device on their network. The device ID must be in their database before it is allowed to be activated. Wipe, unlock and flashing does nothing as the ESN/IMEI is tied to the device and can't be changed.

It is a dual mode CDMA GSM "World Edition" phone. I believe you are correct, as I called Verizon and they did not recognize my ESN so I could not get it activated. I thought perhaps if it had the full Verizon code it might show up on their network. (Obviously I don't know too much about how this works). When I wipe and install the OS, I noticed that all the apps show up as installing, but the base OS shows up ad "Updating". I throught that somehow it was keeping some Bell characteristics with the OS install (like splash screen and background theme)

So is it accurate to say this phone is basically useless, unless it can be used on the Bell Mobility network?

I don't know if it makes a difference in this discussion, but I just noticed I posted this in the 8300 forum, but I have an 8830. Sorry for any confusion.