The 8830 World Edition has support for two radio frequencies. It uses CDMA (for Verizon) in North America. It also supports 900 and 1800 MHz GSM. Those are frequencies used everywhere outside of North America.
The 8830 has a "SIM Card" - Subscriber Identity Module - that controls how the GSM features work.
"Unlocking" means that you can use the phone (GSM piece) on a carrier other than the one the phone came with. For example, if you have the 8830 unlocked, you could go to the UK, get a local SIM card (with a local UK number) and use it. However, you would not have full BlackBerry services, including e-mail, with the local SIM.
People generally unlock phones to use a phone that is not sold by their carrier (use a Bold 9000 on T-Mobile), or to use a less expensive service in another country.
I just returned from three weeks in Europe, mostly Italy but also Austria and Germany.
I used the Verizon sim card after opting for Verizon's GLOBAL plan (prorated for 3 weeks). Worked fine where I was not in too remote a mountain location for signals. Used the phone a few times and data a lot weather, hut info, news and some email).
I recently deactivated my 8830 for my new Tour. Can I give the 8830 to my parents when they head to Europe? How do I unlock it so they can put in any EU SIM?
does the 8830 verizon edition work in europe?
