[jordana816]

I use the BB 8830 with sprint. I am going to Israel and London next week. I just switched to the international data plan. I plan on using AIM and e-mail and switching out the sim card with a local one if i want to make a phone call. Does anyone have any experience doing this? s does it work well?
do I need to adjust any settings on my phone when I get off the plane? will it configure automatically? Also whats the easiest way to take out the sim card?
thanks in advance

[John Clark]

If the Sprint 8830 is sim unlocked it will work just fine.

[bikedogrun]

Originally Posted by John Clark

If the Sprint 8830 is sim unlocked it will work just fine.

John - it isn't a question of "if the Sprint 8830 is unlocked" ... it DEFINITELY is.

Switching to the BB Intl plan is Step#1, but one needs to also make sure that Sprint has appropriately provisioned the phone for Intl support.

Unfortunately; there have been some early Sprint 8830 customers who have posted that while voice calls were not a problem, they were never able to get the 8830 to receive BB email or access the web while overseas ... even though they were assured by Sprint a week before they left that their 8830 was "ready to go".

I myself leave for Europe in mid-Sept and hope that the kinks are ironed out by then. I have been VERY happy with Sprint in the 6 months I've had their service; my Sprint 8830 is awesome ... probably the best device I've ever owned. Clear calls, rapid email delivery etc but the lack of BB email while overseas would "not be a good thing".

If anyone with a Sprint 8830 can share their positive experience in getting email while on a GSM/GPRS provider overseas ... we'd love to hear about it!

/BD

[John Clark]

Originally Posted by bikedogrun

John - it isn't a question of "if the Sprint 8830 is unlocked" ... it DEFINITELY is.

I thought so, but couldn't remember for sure. That's why I said "if." Thanks for the clarification.

[djm2]

Originally Posted by bikedogrun

John - it isn't a question of "if the Sprint 8830 is unlocked" ... it DEFINITELY is.

Switching to the BB Intl plan is Step#1, but one needs to also make sure that Sprint has appropriately provisioned the phone for Intl support.

Unfortunately; there have been some early Sprint 8830 customers who have posted that while voice calls were not a problem, they were never able to get the 8830 to receive BB email or access the web while overseas ... even though they were assured by Sprint a week before they left that their 8830 was "ready to go".

I myself leave for Europe in mid-Sept and hope that the kinks are ironed out by then. I have been VERY happy with Sprint in the 6 months I've had their service; my Sprint 8830 is awesome ... probably the best device I've ever owned. Clear calls, rapid email delivery etc but the lack of BB email while overseas would "not be a good thing".

If anyone with a Sprint 8830 can share their positive experience in getting email while on a GSM/GPRS provider overseas ... we'd love to hear about it!

/BD

I am currently in London, and was just in Sweden, where I was able to use my Sprint 8830 and receive both voice and data. Did have an initial problem where the system was supposed to be set up for international, but was not. This required an international call to Sprint, and a real pita to get it working. Make sure that you request that it be set up for international before you go, and then call and check to make sure that they actually did it.

I also found that I had to manually set up international access on the device by:

Options
Mobile Networks
Network Selection Mode (Manual)
Network Mode (GSM)
Scan for Available Networks

And then select an appropriate network in whichever country you are in. You will have to do this often if you move about. I also noticed that one time after I was in an area where I lost signal (subway) that I had to go through these steps once again to re-connect and receive mail, even though the phone re-connected on its own.

Enjoy your trip. I left the laptop in London while taking a side trip to Sweden, and clients didn't notice a thing. BT keyboard helped for that.

[jordana816]

Thank you. Did u do that before you left? should i do that on the plane?

[djm2]

Originally Posted by jordana816

Thank you. Did u do that before you left? should i do that on the plane?

Make sure everything is activated before you leave, and do the selection of the network after you've touched down or in the terminal. My complaint is that I had to call internationally to get everything activated, even though I had been assured when I ordered the international data plan that everything was good to go.

[dougf]

I will be traveling to Africa next week and bought a SIM card for my 8830. Do you have to do anything other than just put in the new SIM card once you get to the new country? Does anything need to be done on the phone itself or will it recognize the new network automatically?

Is there anyway to find out what the telephone number will be before I leave? I tried putting in the SIM card here and while I knew it could not pick up a working network, it did pick up the Sprint network and did not show a new phone number. WHen I tried to look at the SIM card, the phone told me that there was not a valid SIM card in place.

Thanks for any help

[John Clark]

Is the sim card with Sprint?

[dougf]

The card I bought to use in Tanzania is a celtel card