[dongato17]

Since several calls to VZW tech support has been fruitless, can anyone tell me from experience if the BB service works in Puerto Rico? It looks like there is Extended Service coverage there, but VZW says that means it may work. I prefer not to have to find out by trial and error.

Thanks for the help!

-Hal

[KonTiki]

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry7250/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

I would be interested in finding this out also, if you get an answer please post it here

[dongato17]

Well, worst case is that there will be an answer on 3/25. If anyone has info before then, I would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,
-Hal

[ndirish2001]

I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but your VZW Blackberry will just work as a phone in Puerto Rico.

If data service in Puerto Rico is important for you, you may want to consider switching to either Sprint or Cingular (but never T-Mobile or Nextel).

[KonTiki]

May I ask what you base your answer on please.

[ndirish2001]

Originally Posted by KonTiki

May I ask what you base your answer on please.

That's a very fair question.

Firstly: personal experience. I travel to PR often, and I've done so with both Sprint and VZW data devices. Also, I know many people who live there, and people who live in the US and travel there often.

Secondly: basic research. Precisely because I travel often to PR, I monitor each company's coverage in PR. It should take you about 5 minutes to visit the website of each major carrier to confirm that in Puerto Rico:

1. Sprint and Cingular work in PR just as they do in the U.S. mainland.

2. VZW offers voice, but not data, coverage in PR.

3. T-Mobile treats PR as an international roaming area.

4. There's no iDEN network in PR, so Nextel offers no service there.

[phonemonkey]

VZW has few or no data roaming agreements. A friend was in Little Rock (Alltel's network I think) in October and had his 7250 in phone-only mode the whole time. At least back then, VZW was kind of clueless about this, but perhaps they've gotten better.

There is iDEN service in PR from Proxtel/Northsight, but they have no roaming agreements with Nextel, so your phone is a paperweight there. You'll probably never see it now with the Sprint merger.

This is just one reason why GSM is so useful -- chances are you'll find at least one network you can roam on just about anywhere you go, as long as you have a phone with the right frequencies.