The BlackBerry 8800 is one of the models of the BlackBerry 88XX smartphone, sold from a variety of different carriers. It features a full QWERTY keyboard integrated at the bottom of the phone, a trackball interface for scrolling, and a GPS receiver. The T-Mobile BlackBerry 8800 contains customized software specific to T-Mobile and which is not available on other carriers’ versions of the phone.
You might wonder, why unlock a cell phone? The T-Mobile BlackBerry 8800 is capable of international roaming, using any GSM network. But you have to unlock the BlackBerry cell phone before it can use a network other than T-Mobile. You may prefer to use a less expensive local carrier when travelling internationally.
Why unlock a cell phone if you are happy with your carrier? It is manufactured unlocked, and Research In Motion added a SIM lock at the request of the carriers. By unlocking the cell phone, you are merely restoring it to factory settings. It does not void your warranty, and the phone will remain unlocked even if Research In Motion rolls out new software to your phone. Unlocked phones also have higher resale values than ones that are still SIM locked.
You can get the phone unlock codes you need to unlock the cell phone for free by asking T-Mobile for them, provided that you have been their customer for more than three months. Because the process to unlock a BlackBerry cell phone is somewhat complex, you may wish to stop into the local T-Mobile store and have them perform the phone unlocking for you.
If you do not have access to the phone unlock codes for free, don’t worry. You can always purchase a SIM card from a different phone carrier and buy the correct codes from a third party vendor online.
You can unlock your T-Mobile BlackBerry 8800 by following these steps.
1. Power on your phone, and go to the home screen.
2. Press the Tools icon.
3. Press the Settings icon.
4. Scroll through the settings until you get to SIM Card. Select SIM Card.
5. The phone displays your phone number and SIM ID number.
6. Press the keys on your keypad associated with the letters MEPD. (You don’t need to hit keys multiple times to choose a specific letter – just press the key that shows that letter.)
7. The phone shows that network locking is active.
8. Press the keys on your keypad associated with the letters MEP then press and hold the Alt key while pressing the 2 key.
9. Enter the unlock code that you were given.
10. Press Enter.
11. Power off your phone then power it back on.
That’s all there is to unlocking your T-Mobile BlackBerry 8800! Now you can use your BlackBerry 8800 with any GSM network.
[Photo by T-Mobile]
