[jeevessnsv]

It took me a few days of searching through posts, calling T-Mobile, and calling Cingular to get this figured out, so I thought I'd collect all the info in one post, in case anyone else has this problem.

I got a BB 7280 off EBay for a good price, and it was originally used with AT&T Wireless (now Cingular). I read on this forum that ATT Wireless BBs are already "unlocked" so they work with other providers. This turned out to be true. I thought Cingular's prices were way too high, and plus I don't like their customer service, so I got T-Mobile instead. They set me up with a voice plan and the "Blackberry Add-On".

So, I could use the phone, but no browser icon. Also, when I went to the my-tmobile website to set up the blackberry email, it just gave me an error message after confirming my PIN.

0. 7280 is unsupported on T-Mobile, but I installed the 7230 system upgrade from T-Mobile's site, and it worked fine. Btw, I saw somewhere on here that should delete "VENDOR.XML" from the system before installing, but when I did that, I got "gprs" instead of "GPRS" on the display, which was bad. Put VENDOR.XML back and it was fixed.

1. I called T-Mobile and explained the problem. I said I had a 7230 to simplify discussion. The rep told me to go to Status->Host Routing Table and select the item that was bolded, and choose "Register Now". Didn't work.

2. Another T-Mobile rep said that the PIN was locked on a Cingular account, and only they could release it for me.

3. Called Cingular. Entered random digits when asked for my "cingualar wireless phone number". After doing this twice, you get a human being. = ) I had to explain to the tech rep that I wasn't a cingular customer, but the previous owner was, and forgot to deactivate that part of the account. I supplied the PIN and IMEI. After the rep made 3 other calls to the "data support department" (whatever that is), he reported that it was released.

4. Repeated the Host Routing Table step, suddenly got browser and email icons on the BB. Everything works well now.

Maybe someone else who buys an older BB second hand and uses it with a different service provider will find this info handy. Admittedly, the "no browser icon" issue is a FAQ, but sometimes the solution is more complicated than just upgrading or registering with the network.

Peace.