New to this forum so please excuse a basic question. I am going to be abroad in a few days time and I wondered if it is possible to disable emails on my 8700g whilst abroad (to avoid collecting and paying for spam) but still keep my device turned on? I see from the manual that I can turn the wireless off, but I believe that also turns the phone off.

Some OS's have an on/off feature for data services. If yours has it it's under >Options >Network. The feature is hit and miss on the 8700 4.1 OS's.

You can also go to your BIS website and change the settings to "do not forward to handheld." If you're on BES you can do the same thing in Email options.

...and if you use a prepaid SIM wihle abroad you don't have to worry as you won't have a Blackberry data plan anyway.

I was worried about receiving and paying for spam whilst travelling abroad and before I travelled I set up my BB to receive message headers only which are around 1 KB each message maximum - and you get the option to download the full message after reading the header. 1 KB cost me under 1 penny so I was happy with that solution.....

but if you really wanted to disable the email while travelling then simply delink the email accounts you have set up via the email webclient just before you go....

Why must you continue to use the term "whilst"?

What's wrong with the word whilst?

I've found that the e-mail portion of the overseas charges are very reasonable. The e-mails come in as text so the data doesn't add up like browsing the web.

You should be more concerned about phone charges -- especially when a call goes into voicemail. I don't remember exactly how it worked, but before I went overseas I talked to TMO CS and they told me if I didn't answer a call I would be charged something like 1 minute for the original call, 1 minute to transfer the call back to the US voicemail system and then another 1+ minutes to retreive the voicemail. I told them to disable my voicemail and I only took important calls.

One thing you can also do is go tot your carrier and tell them where you will be traveling. they might be able to set up an international plan and unlock your phone to use on those compatible networks.

BTW - what carrier do you have? If its either Sprint or Verizon, then you have no worries. Neither voice or data will work!