Sam from Cellfservices sent me a great email explaining some of the process behind unlocking a BlackBerry Storm. The following comes from his email to me:
When unlocking a BlackBerry Storm, the unlock process will only unlock the GSM portion of the phone. Because the Storm is Tri-Band, it allows users to use the GSM network in their own country as well.
The dual-band Blackberry 8830s will only work in Asia and Europe. We are able to unlock those as well and have unlocked hundreds of them , but it is a bit more of an arduous project. For example, Verizon masks the last digit of their IMEI always as zero on their 8830s, so we have to read the file through a shared usb program. Most of our international users are willing to do that, but I find that most North American end users do not want to go through the trouble when they can’t even use it in their own home country.
Also, CDMA can be unlocked through programming, but not through code. Most CDMA service providers (Sprint, Verizon, Bell, Telus) will not allow users to use phones outside of their own network since it needs to be manually activated by a representative.
Another interesting fact to note, is that TELUS and Bell definitely will not allow an unlock. Apparently, in the USA, people were changing Sprint ESNs to take over old Verizon ESNs so they could technically ‘mask’ what phone they were using. I’m not sure why, but people would only go from Sprint to Verizon, and not the other way around. To my best knowledge, changing the ESN on a phone is illegal in all North American countries. What the people are saying is: ”Verizon knew, but they didn’t care.”
Remember, go to our BlackBerry Cool and Cellfservices BlackBerry unlocking page to unlock your BlackBerry. We will be offering savings of up to 60% off all BlackBerry unlock codes. Our sale will begin on April 2 at 12am EST and finish on April 9 at 11:59pm EST.
