Hi all, newbie here,
I live in the Cayman Islands, and we have two main providers, Cable and Wireless, and Digicel.
I was told by Digicel that if I get an unlocked Blackberry that all I would have to do is slip my Digicel Sim Card and it would work. Wouldn't you know that I got a so called unlocked 8700C (Cingular version 8700) and when I put my sim card in it says invalid sim card. The cards still work in my regular phones, one is a pay as you go, and one is a subscriber card.
What I am wondering is it worth going through one of the unlocker services, or am I stuck.
Digicel is the Cingular provider on the island, but they do not want to acknowledge that they can fix the problem
Sorry for the long post,
Best regards,
Bob

You will need blackberry data plan on your SIM card to use blackberry to full extent.
If you don't have it and don't plan to,- don't bother unlocking. Even if successful, for your time and money all you'll have is bulky cell phone.

The unlocking services work fine. Please note that you will have to add a BlackBerry Data Plan onto your account from Digicel in order to use any data services. Without a BlackBerry Data Plan, all you will have is voice and data.

Digicel can not unlock your Cingular phone.

Thanks for the replies, I also found a little farther down the forum about typing in mepd, and it comes up active.
I do realize that I need an extra plan to get full use of the BB, but for now the phone working would be nice.
Thanks,
Bob

Which is fine for a number of people. Some people are happy enough with the phone, SMS, and basic PDA functions. Unlocking is still valuable if the user intends to use another carrier or resell the device (since unlocked devices are more desirable).

As I noted, it won't even recognize the sim card, so for now it seems like unlocking will at least start me on the phone path, and then the rest of the best.
Thanks,
Bob

theone,

For what it's worth, takeshi was on the right path...I purchased a 8700g for TMobile here in the US, swap my SIM card from my other phone (a Windows Mobile device, dont hate me yall ) and had the same issues with my SIM card, until TMobile finally switched my data plan over to the Blackberry plan, which amazing allowed the device to register iteself with the network. Just my 2 cents.

My point was, maybe the device itself, the Operating System, may be limiting you

The fact that his phone is still locked is what is limiting him. Once it's unlocked he'll be able to use the phone with the digicel sim card and when he gets a BB data plan he'll be able to receive email and internet, etc. as well.

Thought it would be a joyful day, got my unlock code from gsmliberty, keyed it in the phone like I thought I would have to and nothing happened! Is thee something else I have to do, ?
Again thanks all and Happy New Year,
Bob

Go to Options >Advanced Options >Sim Card and type in MEPD and see if network says "inactive." If it does, you're done! enjoy!

Still says active! As well, SIM, Network Subset, Service Provider, and Corporate, all say disabled,
Keep trying I guess,
Thanks,
Bob

Active means its still locked....check with the unlocking service.

Thanks John, waiting for a reply.
Take care,
Bob

Finally got an answer back from Mark at gsmliberty.com, with instructions:
"With an accepted sim card using the menu go to Settings Menu -> Options ->
Advanced Options -> Sim card press select, while holding the Shift key (bottom
right corner CAPS), type mepd. You should now see the five locking categories
listed, while holding the alt key, type mep2. Release the alt key. You are now
prompted to enter the Network MEP code. Enter the code, enter Return", did that, and wow what a phone, now to get the rst of the package running. Did I mention what a phone, just had a call in my yard, had a Cat front end loader moving sand and gravel around, and I could hear and talk, woudn't have even heard anothe phone ring,
what a phone,
Thanks for your help,
Bob