BlackBerry Forums Support Community - Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

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Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

I dug up my old 8330 and was wondering how usable it would be on wifi only with absolutely no service.

Reason I ask is because my GF is currently in Moscow and will be there for at least 6 months. She has a BB 9780 on a russian network and right now the only ways we have to talk are if we call/text each other which costs a ton of money, or we skype which requires her to borrow a laptop or android device from someone else. My main device is a Galaxy S1 so while I have apps available to me, those same apps aren't available to her on her 9780. I came up with the idea of using our BBs with something like BBM or similar app but my BB has to be able to do this on wifi only.

Is this possible? If I have to mod the phone or anything that's not a problem at all.

I did some googling and I've seen stuff mentioned about needing service books to use BBM on wifi without a data plan, and also something about someone putting "RIM engineering BIOS" on their device to do what I'm trying to do. Figured I'd come back to my old BB hangout and see what advice you all have. 8-)

Re: Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

The 8330 does not have WiFi.

Even if it did, it would have to be active with an active BlackBerry Data Plan in order to use BBM.

Re: Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Motorcycle Mama (Post 1795725)

The 8330 does not have WiFi.

Even if it did, it would have to be active with an active BlackBerry Data Plan in order to use BBM.

Darn, I didn't even think to check if it had wifi or not. It's been forever since I owned a BB and for some reason just assumed that it had it. :-(

Thanks for the info.

Re: Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

Just out of curiosity...

Say I were to pick up a wifi model, something like my old 8530. Is there a way to get the service books on it so I can use a BBM or BBM-type app to communicate with her? Apparently people have successfully got the service books on their phone, or installed some sort of special OS, in order to do this.

If it is possible then I wouldn't mind picking up a used BB with wifi just for this purpose.

Re: Using 3g/CDMA 8330 on wifi only, no service?

No. It's not possible.