My company has decided to issue blackberries, (8700c) from cingular. They will set it up with email and send it to me. Is it possible to take the sim card out and put it into a more sexy 8100 Pearl? Or is it more to it than that?

Ray

Ray,
You can take the sim card from the 8700c and put in a Cingular branded Pearl. However, if you buy another brand of Pearl (i.e TMobile), although it's the same device, you'll need to have the Pearl "unlocked" before your Cingular sim will work. All BB's are locked to the carrier that sold them. You can purchase unlock codes from 3rd party unlockers. There are some reputable companies in our sponsor forum. Also, check with your company to make sure they support the Pearl on your company's BES.

~John

I have also heard of people calling their carrier and getting the unlock code for free. I don't know if there is a waiting period to get the code.

The short answer is yes, but it's more involved than just swapping out SIM cards.

The new device needs to be "Activated" on the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server). If you try to do it yourself, they will see that you have an 8100 on the BES (and stick out like a sore thumb in a sea of 8700's!), so I suggest working with them rather than trying to just swap out on your own.

Yes and no, the sim swap will allow the voice part to fucntion, but since the phone is company-issued it would be on a BES network and need to be added to that exchange server.