Expert: DebiN - 12/13/2009

Question
QUESTION: I have a Motorola Krzr (the blue one) and I am currently on a T-Mobile Pre-paid plan.  I would like to buy a Blackberry 8820 (T-Mobile).  Will I be able to use my current SIM card in the Blackberry, upgrade my prepaid plan to include data and use all of the features of my Blackberry?

ANSWER: You won't be able to use your current prepaid SIM with an 8820. You can go into T-Mobile, convert your prepaid to post-paid and they will provide you with a new post-paid SIM card. In order to use the BlackBerry for anything other than voice, you will have to add a BlackBerry data plan ($24.99 with T-Mobile) and then you can use it for both voice and data. If I were you, I would instead buy a brand new BlackBerry from T-Mobile directly and convert your prepaid to post-paid. T-Mobile offers Curves and the new 8500 and 9700 series BlackBerrys for a very low cost and the 8820 is an older device and not worth purchasing second hand. Since you have to have a data plan to use it, you might as well buy it brand new with a contract and get the lower cost and 12 month warranty. I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Ummm, I have to pay a HUGE deposit to get a contract, unfortunately.  That was what I was trying to avoid.

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Answer
I totally understand. Unfortunately, there is no way to use a BlackBerry with T-Mobile and a prepaid SIM card. You would need to get the BlackBerry SIM unlocked. If you did that, the SIM would work for voice, but you still couldn't use data. I hope this helps. Thanks. DebiN