Hi! I am going to Australia and New Zealand for vacation next month and wanted to use my t-mobile 7100 while there. I would like to get a cheap(er) SIM card from a local provider and use it rather than pay the INCREDIBLE roaming charge from t-mobile.

Can I just put in a new SIM into the Blackberry and use the voice plan (don't care about data during vacation) or do I have to "unlock" the phone before I leave. I am not sure what is involved in unlocking the phone or if I need to do this.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
-Alex-

You will have to have it unlocked. I have seen many people offering this service but I am not sure what is involved.

Many people? Bongo Wireless is the only one I know of.

Well, you may be in luck. If you have been a T-Mobile customer for three months and are in good standing, you can call T-Mobile Customer Care and ask them to unlock the phone. They are the only carrier that will do that.

Just be aware that you will need to get a local SIM card with a BlackBerry Data Plan on it, otherwise you will have voice and SMS only.

Just an update....

NJBlackBerry is correct and T-Mobile did unlock my phone. Very quick and pleasent service with no questions asked. Process involves calling TMobile CS, giving them your phone info, then they send you an email with the unlocking info and codes.

So now to order some SIMS for Australia and NZ.....
Thanks for all the help!
-Alex-

What is the procedure to write the unlock code for 7290 ?
The T-mobile will give me to my unlock code if i call they ? Is posible to introduce the unlock from the keyboard and menu ?
Thank's alot...

Just as a note - you will find it hard to find SIM's with BlackBerry services for just 3 months. Almost all BB's SIMs are on 12 month contracts minimum. You may be better paying the roaming fees.

Bunker.

That's true Bunker! I bought two SIMS (one for Australia, one for NZ) for $49/$39 each (includes minutes). Neither will be data compatible I suspect, so I will just probably stick my T-Mobile SIM in once or twice a day and roam just for data while "down under". Since the data is charged by the mb, and not the minute, I suspect that I can get my email and sitll keep the charges low.

Thanks,
-Alex-

I'd advise to give T-Mobile a quick call and see what the roaming charges are on data. Some people have reported HUGE bills after just a couple of emails (as a side note, a couple of emails to one person could be 5, and another could be 50 with large attachments)

Zro

As long as you are a T-Mobile customer and have been for 3 months (or you are within 3 months of cancelling service) they will give you an unlock code for your T-Mobile BlackBerry.

If you are on Cingular, you can't call T-Mobile and get an unlock code.

Zro

The charge for internet and email roaming in Australia is .15/kb cents or $15/ megabyte in Australia/NZ.

My email volume is reasonable without too many attachments, so I think my costs shouldn't be too high.

Thanks for all the help!
-Alex-

Just got back from my trip to Australia and NZ. The optus SIM and the vodaphone SIM I bought down there worked fine in Australia and NZ respectively. To use the SIM I had to change my network setting from "automatic" to manual and then scan the networks until I found the local network (Optus in Australia and Vodaphone in NZ). Then it worked fine.
International calling on Optus was very cheap but no data on that network. Never could get the tmobile roaming to work in either country.

In New Zealand, not only did the voice work, but the data worked via the Vodaphone network. Coverage was outstanding. However international calls were very expensive and ripped through my pre-paid time quickly.

Overall a good experience with the Blackberry down under!
-Alex-

How did you get data on a foreign network? Did your NZ SIM include blackberry data services? I'm in China, and I have gprs data enabled on my account, but I don't have any blackberry specific data services or BES.

China Mobile gave me the APN for both wap and internet access, but I cannot find a place to put in the gateway address. I cannot get past the "data conn refused" error, and I cannot figure out why. Also bought the 7100T used, and I inherited someone else's service book.

m.

Hmm...not sure about the problems on your 7100. I am assuming that it is completely unlocked. I wonder if it would help if you did a complete reset and scrubbed the unit clean?

In NZ, as soon as I put in the Vodaphone NZ SIM and manually chose the network, it started receiving email from my accounts. Did not do any web browsing, so not sure about that. I did not do any other setup on the BB other then the SIM swap and the network setting.

Hope you can solve your problem with the China network.

Thanks,
-Alex-