A co-worker of mine noticed today that my Blackberry is pretty crunked (including a shattered screen) and said he was getting a new phone within the next few days and he’d give me his. They’re the same or nearly the same model (Curve), but his is Verizon-branded and mine is Sprint. He’s sure it will work, but I’m not 100% confident.
I work for a cell phone service provider and we will not activate a device that is branded to another carrier. Many phones have software that is specific to a carrier and may not work on another carrier’s network. I don’t know if that is the case for Sprint.
Having said that, there are ways you can “flash” that Blackberry with Sprint’s software. I suggest looking at the boards over at Crackberry. They also have some tips on how to get it activated (i.e., don’t call customer service and say “I have this Verizon phone I want to activate.”).
Keep in mind that if you are successful in getting it activated you may not get any warranty or technical support if anything were to happen to the phone. It’s also possible that if they discover it’s a Verizon phone your service may be suspended or cancelled (I don’t work for Sprint so I don’t know what their policies are regarding this issue).