Quote:
Originally Posted by dix@
I am trying to understand. The Bell tour has CDMA for North America, and they say it will use GSM only in Europe (et al) where the frequencies are 900 and 1800, but when I read the specs sheet, Blackberry says the tour has both these frequencies AND the North American frequencies (850 and 1900) PLUS it has these frequencies for CDMA as well. The Bell sim cards issued for this phone only use GSM, but the new network HSPA cannot be accessed unless you use the new SIM cards which are for North America only. My question is, could it be possible to use the SIM card from another carrier in the tour while in North America. Bell says it cannot, but then they have a vested interest to be sure that it does not, otherwise, I would be able to let the phone go to the competition at will. I could pick CDMA OR GSM, whichever was the best signal. Anyone know?
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Some folks are using the Tour 9630 on GSM networks. They only get EDGE speeds, but it will work in North America if you get the GSM portion unlocked. Most people who did this made their decision when the Tour was new and the 9700 was not yet available. Some people just HAVE to have the newest shiniest device out there.
The Tour will ALWAYS choose cdma when there is a signal, switching to GSM only when it's the lone choice available, unless you set it use one or the other exclusively. These devices were designed to use a Sprint or Verizon-supplied GSM SIM card with your native carrier's data roaming package. Because you can't have the device's PIN registered with more than one carrier for data services, if you use another carrier's SIM in the GSM slot you won't get BlackBerry data on both CDMA and GSM carriers. You have to pick one to use. If you go with a GSM carrier the device won't work at all on CDMA. If you go with CDMA as your primary and use another carrier's GSM SIM you will only get phone and SMS.
World phones like the Tour really are poor choice for GSM use other than with data roaming through your CDMA carrier.