Blackberry 8830 Plagued By Connection Flaw?
Posted on 26 March 2008, at 6:04 pm, by Wayne Schulz
Interested in one of the CDMA Blackberry 8830 devices offered by Verizon or Sprint? You should know there’s a huge buzz on various discussion forums concerning a reported flaw in the device that might convince you to delay your purchase. The problem only seems to appear on the CDMA carriers – but so many people are reporting an issue on both Verizon and Sprint that it seems likely to be a software or hardware issue as opposed to a cellular carrier problem. Keep reading for details on the problem and links to active discussion forums threads where users are sharing their experiences.
The issue that multiple Blackberry 8830 users are reporting has to do with the device sporadically failing to find a data signal. They report that the signal strength drops to zero or they receive a message that they’re not within data coverage.
Many users report that the signal on their Blackberry completely dropping out and then coming back to full strength. While this happens incoming calls may go to voicemail without ringing the phone. Emails may stop arriving as well until the user pulls and reinserts the battery (toggling the transmitter on and off reportedly works as well).
This problem appears limited to the CDMA carriers and does not appear to affect the 88xx models on AT&T Wireless or T-Mobile.
Here’s a link to several discussion forum threads that have been discussing this problem since late 2007:
PinStack:
Losing EVDO Connection
BlackberryForums:
Annoying Loss Of Data Connecticon
BuzzAboutWireless (Sprint official forum):
Blackberry 8830 Problem
Crackberry:
8830 Data stops and doens’t pick up until power cycle
Many of the forum participants claim to have swapped out several devices with each succeeding 8830 soon exhibiting the same signal dropping pattern.
Until there is a software patch posted for this model, you may want to think twice about purchasing a CDMA 88xx model Blackberry. One of the best places to keep current on this issue is the Blackberry 8800 forum at Blackberryforums.com.
Related posts:
- Sprint Blackberry 8830 without contract – $365
- BlackBerry 8830 Word Edition CDMA Phone (Refurbished/Verizon) – $109.95 Contract Free
- Verizon To Launch Blackberry Curve 8330 in May 2008
- Amazon has the Sprint BlackBerry Curve and 88xx for Free after rebate and contract
- Sprint Blackberry Curve 8330 – Available Online – $179
March 26th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Wow. I was torn between getting the 8830 and the Moto Q9m a few months ago, and decided in the end to go with the Q9. I am kind of glad that I did, if this is true.
March 26th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
I was close to buying an 8830 under Sprint. Their simply unlimited plan is a great deal because for $99 you also receive a free BIS Blackberry account plus unlimited text messaging.
The stories in the discussion forums where too similar for this just to have been one or two bad devices. Several people reported swapping two or three 8830s and having the same signal dropping experiences.
A lot of my clients are sporting the Verizon 8830s. I’m going to check with one of them tomorrow when I’m on-site with them to see if they’ve experienced this issue.
For now I’m sticking with my T-Mobile Blackberry 8320.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:55 am
For any of those that own a BlackBerry and is interested in getting a case for it, I just read on a blog from http://www.semsons.com that they are offering free shipping on OtterBox cases for iPhones and BlackBerries. Check out the link here: http://semsons.blogspot.com. You can find the cases here: http://www.semsons.com/cases.html. This offer expires 4/14/08.