BlackBerry® Torch™

[jamilu_isa]

hi pple, a friend of mine sent me a bb touch 9800 from usa to nigeria, the phone seems to be working fine but the BIS aspect, meaning i can make calls, text etc but cant do bb chat, facebook, twitter etc even though i ve subcribe with my local netwrk provider. i want to know how to unlock it to be able to enjoy these features pls. tnx

[sdgardne]

Hello...and apolgies for the delayed reply!

Any BB can be used on any carrier that runs the same radio frequencies that the BB is capable of (and I've no idea if your's are such). But, to bring a BB onto a carrier network that they did not sell to you, there are several hurdles to cross:

1) The carrier must say "yes" to the fact...they own their network and have every right to say what devices will be allowed to connect to it. If they say "no", then that's the end of it.

2) You must be sure that your BB is properly unlocked from it's originally manufactured-for carrier...see this helpful thread for details:

• http://supportforums.blackberry.com/t5/General-BlackBerry-Functions-and/Unlocking-your-BlackBerry-Gu...

3) You must get all of your voice level services functioning on the carrier, before you even try anything about data

4) You must subscribe, from the carrier, to an adequate data plan to enable the BB-proprietary services you desire

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You must next conduct the following steps, in order, even if they seem redundant to what you have already tried (steps 5 and 6 each should result in a message coming to your BB...please wait for that before proceeding to the next step):

5) Register HRT

• KB00510 How to register a BlackBerry smartphone with the wireless network
• Please wait for one "registration" message to arrive to your Messages app

6) Delete and Resend Service Books

• KB05000Delete the service book for the BlackBerry Internet Service email account from the BlackBerry smartphone
• If you have no CMIME entry, then skip the deletion
• KB02830 Send the service books for the BlackBerry Internet Service
• Please wait for "Activation" Messages, one per already configured email account, to arrive in your Messages. If you have no already configured email accounts, please wait 1 hour.

7) Batt Pull Reboot

• Anytime random strange behavior or sluggishness creeps in, the first thing to do is a battery pop reboot. With power ON, remove the back cover and pull out the battery. Wait about a minute then replace the battery and cover. Power up and wait patiently through the long reboot -- ~5 minutes. See if things have returned to good operation. Like all computing devices, BB's suffer from memory leaks and such...with a hard reboot being the best cure.

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Hopefully that will get things going again for you! If not, then you will need to work with MTN Nigeria to determine why you cannot receive BIS-level services. There are several possibilities:

1. The BB PIN remains registered in a different carriers BIS system...one BB PIN can exist in the BB infrastructure only once at any one time...that other carrier must release it before MTN Nigeria can create a proper BIS account for it. MTN Nigeria should be able to tell you if this is the case.
2. The device could be reported as lost or stolen...this would lock the BB PIN from having any BIS account anywhere. Again, MTN Nigeria should be able to tell you if this is the case (I somewhat doubt it given that you have voice services, but you never know!)

Until you are able to register the HRT and receive the Service Books from MTN Nigeria, you will have no access to data level services.

Good luck and let us know!