Well it looks like I got hosed on eBay.
According to the nice fellow I spoke with over the phone at Horizon Wireless, the IMEI indicates that I have a pre-production 8800.
I suspected as much when I received it from the seller and inside the label indicates "Property of Research in Motion" and has a date code of 16 June 2006.
Anyways, Horizon indicates that they CAN unlock it for me (at an additional cost). Just waiting for an email from Horizon about how to proceed. The phone is currently locked to AT&T (Cingular). I have AT&T (Blue) and don't want to upgrade (that's a different story).
I had never planned to use my 8800 with the BIS or BES. I was simply wanting to have a full QWERTY keyboard to type text messages. I'd simply get a regular data plan and use Opera Mini to browse the web.
However, for my own edification, how can I find out
for sure if the PIN on my 8800 is blocked or deactivated (without upgrading to a BIS plan)?
Thanks in advance.