My wife is giving her now-deactivated Blackberry Storm to a friend. I ran the Security Wipe on it, and it appears that everything—internal memory, extra apps, messages, contacts, SD card, and SIM card—has been restored to factory settings. I also tried to make an outgoing call, to no avail (recorded message saying my phone was not active, etc.), which is good.
Only one question left: Do I need to remove the SIM card? I assume it’s going to be easier for the friend if we leave it in there, and then Verizon can reassign it to her phone number/acct. There appears to be no personal data stored on the SIM card (the Storm stores almost all of its contacts and other data elsewhere, unlike older cell phones).
Are there any risks to leaving it in? The only reason it even comes to mind is that I’m selling my own Storm to gazelle.com, and they told me to make sure I removed the SIM card before shipping it in.
Definitely Verizon. I know Verizon iPhone doesn’t have a SIM card, but the Storm does. I wonder if it’s an international feature? The card is labeled both “Verizon” and “Vodafone”.
Why would you leave the SIM card in? I’m no expert, but I thought that if you signed up for phone service with a company that uses SIM cards, they would give you one.
I see. I remember that when I used my old T-mobile phone when I was in Europe (my Verizon phone wouldn’t work there), to use it I bought a pre-paid SIM card, they didn’t use the one that was already in my phone.
I haven’t powered up my Storm in ages…I tried using it briefly, but never really got into it.
(The advantage of making cell phones for a living…you get to try things without spending much money…)
The Storm has quad band GSM, and IIRC, band 1 support for UMTS. Mine works as a GSM phone when I put my AT&T SIM in it. If I were in Europe (or my old office, which had a private UMTS network), I’d probably get UMTS.
Do you need to remove it? Probably not. But it’s easy to do…and if you do remove it, you’re guaranteed there is no security leak.
If the friend is going to use it domestically, then they don’t need a SIM card…and Verizon won’t care. It’s CDMA only for that case. I don’t know if it has EVDO or not…I’ve never paid attention to the details of their phone line-up…I only know this much because of the GSM angle.
If the friend is going to use it internationally, they need an activated SIM card. Yours isn’t. So leaving your SIM card in it doesn’t help them.
Bottom line - pop the battery door off and remove the SIM. It does the friend no good.
D/a
ETA - This is all rumor…and not even my personal opinion. None of this, obviously, is sanctioned by my employer…which will remain nameless.
What? In my experience (using GSM-based phones in the US), if you sign up for service with a company that uses SIM cards, they give you a SIM card with your account info on it.
I don’t believe a properly functioning phone can do this. A poorly functioning phone might be able to cause electrical damage, but I don’t think it can just erase the subscriber information.
I’m not an expert on SIM communication, though. I tend to deal with the…well…digital sections of the product more than the radio side. (And yeah, I know this is digital…but it gets used by the radio people…)
-D/a
The Blackberry in the OP can run on CDMA at home (Verizon), and roam on partner GSM networks with which Verizon has special agreements.
If the account was closed, the SIM should be deactivated, and can then be tossed. If the OP’s wife is keeping the account open and activating another Verizon CDMA phone on it, she should keep the SIM. It is still tied to the account and can still be used overseas in another GSM phone.
A deactivated SIM, in theory, can contain contact information and text messages. Phones will happily read them…they just won’t camp on a network (outside of emergency camp).