I've been a long time Verizon customer, and am thinking of getting a Blackberry. The Curve seems like good timing for me.

However, my biggest complaint with Vz has been how they cripple their phones with Vcast branding and force you to pay for services that should be free. I like my Razr but I won't pay for ringtones or other media when the phone is capable of getting that stuff for free but Vz pooped on the firmware to make it impossible.

Should I be worried that Vz does the same thing to the Blackberry? I'll switch providers in a hurry if this is the case.

There is nothing disabling adding your own ringtones to the BB Curve on Verizon. They will disable the GPS, but not adding media, music, pictures, etc.

Right -- you can expect GPS to be disabled until they get their navigator app working for it.

I read that the phone will be about $270 with a new 2 year agreement and $440 w/o a contract. Does that mean that if you're an existing custy and u buy the phone and say "tack on another 2 years" you can go it for the lower price? Anyone have any experience with this?

It varies from carrier to carrier, however, normally the two year contract starts anew.

On the blackberry site, they have a demo of the verizon curve and the options you will have available...

101 Demonstrator for the BlackBerry 8330.

Except for the navigator everything else seems to be the same as others carriers.

I had the Razr (POS), and the EnV. If all you're worried about is free ringtones, then you can make your own and send them to your Razr without a problem. As far as the BB, they don't really cripple anything except the GPS as mentioned above, until you pay for VZNavigator.

-Jeff-

Just out of curiosity, why would you think those services should be free?

Personally, I switched from Verizon in early 2007. I thought the whole service was crippling-- I traveled out of the country frequently, and needed to rent a phone. I hated that I couldn't use bluetooth the way it was intended. File transfer was a pain in the butt. And it was the most expensive of all!

I now have a Blackberry on T-Mobile and I love that I have the freedom to install programs and alter things.

verizon is good but excessively expensive.

I have Verizon and can do all of those things you mentioned you couldn't. Sounds more like a device issue than a carrier problem.