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Switched Old Verizon Blackberry Tour 9630 to Page Plus Cellular

June 13, 2012 by debbie T | Wireless

We recently set up an older Verizon Blackberry Tour 9630 phone for cell service at PagePlus, a Verizon MVNO (reseller). So far it’s working out very well.

My husband needed a talk/text plan (no data) and the Blackberry keyboards are so easy for texting, much better than a cheap flip phone.

Originally, we unlocked the Blackberry Tour using cellunlock.net for $7.99 (watch youtube video for discount) – and then used a T-Mobile sim card with the monthly 1500 talk/text plan for $30. It was a great plan, but because the Blackberry Tour could only access Edge 2G, the phone was virtually useless in and around our home.

So, we decided to give Page Plus a try.

They are a Verizon Wireless MVNO, (mobile virtual network operator) which basically means they are a Verizon service reseller, buying the service in bulk, then setting their own fees.

Their Talk n Text plan was perfect for my husband. It offers 1,200 Minutes and 3,000 Texts. The plan also includes 100mb of data, but unfortunately, I’m not sure how to set up the Blackberry Tour for data use.

The first thing we needed to do, was port my husband’s T-Mobile cell number to Page Plus. I tried the process online initially, but we ended up having to call their customer service. We had the Blackberry MEID number handy, which can be found in the Blackberry “Options>Status” menu. We also had other necessary info like the T-Mobile account number, pin number, etc.

Then we waited, and waited, and waited. It took about 24 hours for the number to port. I don’t know why, but I guess it can take that long. 🙁

Once we knew the phone wasn’t hooked up to T-Mobile anymore, we called the Page Plus customer service again and they activated our Blackberry. I can’t recall the exact steps, but we had to type in several codes/numbers in one of the settings.

After we were done, the phone wasn’t connected to the network, even after rebooting. 🙁

Then I remembered that we had to change the network settings when we initially unlocked the phone, so we clicked Options>Mobile Network and changed the “Network Technology” from GSM to 1XEV.

That worked!

So far, we’ve been using the PagePlus network for a few weeks and it’s worked very well.

I do have to mention that their online account access is very basic, with only the bare minimum of information available.

It displays your current plan, expiration date, and the amount of minutes/texts left. There is a link for Call Records, and it’s updated very quickly, but the “range” options are a bit confusing and don’t always match what you’ve selected.

But it’s a great price and so much less expensive than Verizon (especially for a Blackberry) so I’m really not complaining. Just wanted to warn others what to expect.

If you have an out-of-contract Verizon phone hanging around, and don’t want to keep paying Verizon exorbitant fees, we recommend trying Page Plus Cellular.

UPDATE (2013-06-14): We used Page Plus last year for about a month, it worked very well on the Blackberry Tour. The only reason we stopped the service was because my husband acquired a new phone at work.

Well once again, we’re in need of cheap cell phone service, and Page Plus came through with free activation for a new cell number! (They charge $10 on the web site)

I phoned customer service (warning: I was on hold for many minutes waiting to talk to someone), recited the MEID number (Options>Status), dialed *228, restarted, and the phone was up and running with a new cell number and $2 credit.

I just needed to log into my Page Plus account online, add the new phone (using the new cell number) the add minutes. For now, we’re using the $25 Pay-as-you-go plan for 416 minutes (or approx 500 text messages at 5cents ea)

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