Blackberry World 8830



As you guys may recall, I did a thread a while back on the Blackberry capabilities such as internet both phone and laptop and apps etc.  I hadn't really at that time got to use this phone for what its really intended, world travel.  I'm here now to tell you that is where it really shines.  I do a lot of travel for work some with even more in my future overseas.  Since, it is work not vacation, I don't always end up in the tourist mecca with all the technological advances.  

Though these days internet and phones are almost everywhere in the world electricity is, accessing those can be quite difficult at times especially if you don't speak the language which is compounded by the large time zone differences.  Call down to a hotel desk at 3AM, for example, and the English speaking person most likely won't be there and many hotels like in the US limit access to avoid fraud.  Phone card access numbers and cell phone system types and providers change country to country.  One has to plan on being in this country on that day and have the right information, cards, or cells and greatly limits your flexibility as communications go.  Up until now, I have yet to complete one trip without at least a multiple times not being able to communicate when I needed to.  

The Blackberry World is an excellent solution to that problem.  The service provider I use is Verizon which has partner agreements literally with about any phone provider in the world.  Now that's a little more expensive than buying the sim card for say your AT&T sim card capable phone but you don't have to have a sim card for every country or even plan a head.  

The World phone is upgraded with a sim card once, that can be switched to both phone provider types by the user at will.  Its actually pretty simple, you try one and see if you get a signal then try the other.  In some of the larger countries overseas, this is very important because you may find one service type in the large cities then have to switch in the more rural areas.  This greatly enhances your coverage area over a single sim card type phone, which is typically either or and will only work in the area the card is programmed for.  

The phone automatically recognizes the service area and vice versa as soon as you enter it and billing is automatic.  In other words, you don't do anything just turn the phone on and make a call.  

The fee is $20 a month with a separate by minute charge that changes by  country or the deals Verizon struck.  My recent trip to China, it was $1 a minute which is not bad, but more backward nations it can be as high as $3 a minute.  Even that's not too bad if after finding out your calling card doesn't work, compared to making an overseas call on a hotel bill assuming you can find someone at the time you need to make a call that speaks English so you can place one.  

Add in the email feature on the phone and you can receive or send emails 24/7 typically with no additional fee.  Text messaging is like a phone call but there's a way to program your phone so it converts the text to email thus avoiding the minute fee.  

On my last trip, I traveled over 300 miles in China across two provinces from large cities to very small cities.  Like the US, China has cell service along their interstates and I was without cell service none of my time there.  I did have to change the cell service type a couple times but compared to my prior trips to even Europe, it was a totally different experience.  Not only could I call the US at will but every regularly placed call to my cell in the US rang right over more than 12,000 miles away.  Excuse the pun, but it was a totally new world for me.

There are, of course, less expensive options if you are saying going to one country and staying there for vacation.  One can even save a little money by researching all the places one is going and making arrangements for each place, but if you don't know where you will end up and for sheer convenience this option is damn hard to beat.  

I know everyone doesn't have world travel in their plans but I thought you guys would find this very interesting for you never know.  I sure didn't plan on traveling the world as much as I am but its putting food on the table and in my storage area.

Tj

Yes, As far as no camera goes, that's a double edged sword that's for sure.  I really like that feature in a phone from a personal standpoint but in the business I'm in 8 out of 10 times I do a plant visit, I would either have to lie about my phone not having a camera or leave my phone at the guard desk.  With me, that mean guard desk.  

I've gone to the new pocket size cameras (actually a 12 mp) and though I'm carrying one more piece of pocket gear than I use to, I've not only gotten use to it but find it actually way more practical.  Where I can actually use a camera and need on, I can now actually see the detail of the machines I'm taking pictures.  Though the 8830 will store pictures and play them back, the fact I use both a separate camera now and the phone internet to laptop interface, I don't email pictures from my camera anymore hardly at all opting for the laptop with its bigger more detailed spring that makes it more possible to send the better picture out of my selection.  

I guess I have adapted to the lack of camera and even if I get a new phone with a camera, probably won't go back to using a cell camera as my dominate camera again.  

In regard to the track ball, I don't know what to tell you other than its ancient technology and pretty convinced is going to be problematic not matter what they do to improve it.  Its not like the computer track ball hasn't been in production for a couple decades now and they still have the same issues.  

What I've done in this regard is take more care to avoid dirt on the phone, taken out the insurance just in case, and plan to get a new one ever contract renewal.  I wish had gotten in on the buy one at this low price get one free deal.  Then I would have been on call away from switching phones.  

In getting the SIM card, that was a one time deal and I simply went to my local Verizon store and picked one up for like $18.  Since the Blackberry principle is an adaptable SIM, it makes sense to build one in.  

I find the screen adequate but I will say this as an older guy adjusting to those small keys on that full keyboard was a PITA.  I type so the alphanumeric keys weren't too difficult but until I learned the location of the specialty keys, it was difficult not being able to see them so clearly.  

Tj

I thought I had covered this, but I'll go into more detail.

Phones services like AT&T are GSM only while Verizon has three system options GSM, IXEV, and what the call Global (CDMA).  That's why this thread isn't wow I wish I had an Iphone because Iphone isn't an CDMA option or at least won't be until next year at Verizon.  The 8830 for me wasn't a phone option.  It was the only phone option to be able to access those options and have the most complete coverage overseas.  

That's really what this thread is about, options overseas.  

Its like I posted before, if you are going to some vacation spot or large city a GSM probably works just fine for you but if you are country hopping and going to the boonies, the ability to switch types is the difference between having service and not.  Having the most durable phone in the world that doesn't work all the time is not a good option for some of us.  During my time in China, after I left Shanghai, I never saw another westerner from any country.  

Where Verizon approaches this as switch this button, AT&T takes a switch this SIM card.  

On my last trip, I would simply loose service.  Now instead of going "Oh wow, no service here" despite all the locals talking away on theirs, I'd switch service types then my phone would work.  

In my very laxed layman understanding, I will try to explain this.  There's a thousands of phone service providers in the world.  Unlike the USA where we buy our phones and subscribe to this one service, overseas they buy minutes on a given service.  They mostly buy their phones outright then can switch services by changing out the SIM card.  Think of it more like Net 10 etc.   They basically have what's called "Unlocked" cell phones.  Where all the world was basically GSM, even then there were two GSM bands in the US and two totally different GSM bands in say Europe, now CDMA services are popping up all over the world.  Our sim cards basically do one major function, it tells these thousands of services this is who I am and you can bill my provider for my airtime or I pre-paid on this local bought card.  There are, or course, deals within deals within those countries as well.  What you have basically is two hurdles to using your phone overseas.  One is will your phone work on a given system in the area you are and do they have an billing agreement.  What we're basically doing overseas is the old "Roaming".  Now the more agreements ones provider has the more service area will be available for roaming and the more options on service types one has the more options one has a roaming.  Many of our phones won't work at all because common US phone will be typically locked to on service type (there's four GSMs for exammple).  World phones are designed to access different service types.

Where Europe has  a very large one of the four GSMs, Asia on the other hand has a very large CDMA presence.  You'll find this a lot in developing areas since basically CDMA is a newer service type than GSM and provides faster download capability for data transfer.  Eastern  Europe, for example, you will run into more CDMA than Western Europe.  

The Verizon system also typically avoids the entire have to have the local SIM, new local phone number, problem you run into with GSM phones that the area does not have billing agreements.  The charge is a little more per minute as a result to cover all the different rates.  

Anyway, for now, technology is fleeting, the advantage of the World 8830 isn't its the I can bash this phone around anyway I like durability, but it will allow you to make more calls in the world than any other phone with the least amount of hassle.

In the work I do, the guys I deal with have plants now on three continents and dealings on all of them well maybe not Anartica.  Penguins don't buy much.  

Tj

Pretty much yes.

All CDMA, GSM I, II, III, IV, are, is signal types.  I find it best to think of the SIM card is the way the phone communicates to other services that use those signals that you have billing so allow your signal through.  

Take a CDMA phone out of the states that doesn't have SIM capability then it can have a signal where there's CDMA towers but you won't have a service.  Even though it gets the signal, you will get the "No Service" indicators whatever it may be for that phone.  Same goes for a GSM phone without a SIM card, however even less likely you will get a signal even since most of the world is type III & IV and most the US is type I or II.  

Because of all of this, one thing you notice hanging around folks from other countries is they sure exchange phone numbers a lot more often than we do.  That goes for emails too.  We can give someone our cell number and not hear from them for years and they can call you.  They change providers a lot more than we do and the numbers or emails don't always carry over.  I can't tell you which is better.  They have more billing options than we do but we have way more convenience than they do.  It is kind of noticeable though, when you get a large group of old friends together how much more they exchange numbers than say a like number in the US.  

Oh yeah, to answer part two.  No the World phone is both CDMA and GSM, but yes in the US it will read the built in identifier and only receive and broadcast in CDMA if you're on Verizon.  Of course, on say AT&T it will be GSM.  Now if you followed my explanation, you can switch it in the connections options.  It just won't work.  

Tj