My BB 8900 Since last year, i was wondering about the email i received from my boss. It contains the ubiquitous line “Sent from my Blackberry..”

I am so poor I can only afford a Nokia 3200 for a phone. Andso not wanting to feel envy to Blackberry users, I never actually bothered myself to read articles about the product.

When i transferred to another company, our GMs were using Blackberry devices. And i thought, well, tha thing is for executives only. My boss was gushing about how great Blackberry is, but since it is synonymous to “expensive”, he can’t really convince me to buy a Blackberry. The Blackberry Bold is US 550-600. He tried to offer me his newest Blackberry Storm- 6 months to pay, but still, no go for me, especially that the Storm has no wi-fi.

Until my officemate from Indonesia offered a deal, three of us will order Blackberry Curve 8900 from Jakarta at 480USD. I thought that one is OK.

And so, a week after, my BB Curve arrived.

I was worried about how to have it activated undr my MTN Sim card. The thought of endless documetary requirements made me delay the registration. So for a week, i was using the wi-fi of my BB to connect to internet. Until my colleague showed me how to activate the MTN Blackberry service by just sending a text message to MTN Blackberry Information Sserver (BIS). Wow, in just 30 minutes and 5,000 naira load, my BB service magically started. The word “EDGE” replaced the “GSM”. And i am guaranteed 24×7 connection. But wait, there’s more — i am using a PRE-PAID SIM card.!

I can’t believe activating BB service in Nigeria was that EASY!

Very unlike Philippine providers like Smart and Globe — too much of control freaks. You can’t get Blackberry if you do not sign-in as Post-paid customer, and the bandwidth usage is limited.

I check their respective websites to learn about their Blackberry services and i am convinced that when I go for vacation, I will not subscribe to BB service to these two providers.

And so, there i was,whole Sunday tinkering my BB. So what if there is no internet in the house or office. My BB ofers me push email, Yahoo messenger and Facebook.

I have 3 email accounts ‘pushed’ into my BB. An MTN BB email (default), a Gmail (free POP), a Yahoomail (i paid 20USD to activate POP Mailplus), and a YMail account (free POP).

I downloaded YM, GoogleTalk and FB. That is aside from BB’s own IM.

The advantage of havin BB in Nigeria is i can hold it and use it anywhere, anytime without fear of “holdap” or “snatching”…

Ah, talk about connectivity and mobility. 

My only problem with BB Curve is that it does not play Flash movies. And so i cannot check my Farm Town.

Tsk tsk tsk.