10 Comments to “Sadly BlackBerry Thunder Will Not Work On AT&T & T-Mobile”

1. 

   Posted by: Lance G.

   June 11, 2008 at 11:19 am EST

   This really Sucks. I’m a person that will buy any phone(BB) my carrier gets. I’m with TMo. It would be nice to at least get to experience having the option of all different berrys on TMo.Why does RIM have to be like that?
   It’s never been this way where they only offer a certain berry to a certain carrier. That suck bad. I would have a bold and thunder if they’d just give the damn thing to my carrier.
2. 

   Posted by: Nikolaus

   June 11, 2008 at 11:30 am EST

   I agree, plus BlackBerrys usually come to GSM carriers first and in greater numbers than CDMA. Now that Verizon is #1 after buying Alltel I guess they deserve to be hated as much as AT&T.
3. 

   Posted by: Lance G.

   June 11, 2008 at 11:55 am EST

   I’ve never been a fan of Verizon. When people mention their with Verizon, My nose tends to fringe up…lol
   But they have horrible pricing and plans. TMO is by far the best carrier pricing, cust svc, just needs to get more phones and hurry up and roll out that 3g.
4. 

   Posted by: Richard Puckett II

   June 11, 2008 at 12:16 pm EST

   @Nikolaus: Oh no, Verizon has deserved our hatred since *long* before they announced the merger with Alltel. It began for me around the time of the Moto T-720….

   @Lance G: VZW used to be an utter joke with their phone selection (not as bad as Sprint, but in the same league). They chose CDMA and many of the better phones in the world were geared toward GSM networks. I think it’s safe to say though that this has changed in the past year or two with VZW finally getting some rather nice handsets in their catalog, incl the latest BlackBerrys.

   Now VZW’s getting the Thunder, which means I won’t. This means I will not be able to treat it as a development priority since I can’t keep a ton of CDMA phones in my personal inventory as, generally, they each require their own service contract. RIM should be much more careful about making it ANY harder to develop for their BlackBerrys.
5. 

   Posted by: Wegmans

   June 11, 2008 at 12:23 pm EST

   finally Verizon gets something everyone else wants! I don’t have pity at all, because we’ve always gotten the crappy phones, so for once now you know what it feels like!

   That being said, you’re more than welcome to play with mine when i get it!
6. 

   Posted by: Lance G.

   June 11, 2008 at 12:38 pm EST

   “Wegmans” You Jerk…lol…I’m not gonna be a hater, just don’t like Verizon at all and I hope they flop and disappear. Just my personal opinion. somebody’s gonna figure out how to make that phone work on TMO, Or RIM had better be making a duplicate for GSM and just change the color and name so they don’t brake their terms with Verizon. I need That Damn Phone………..Ya Heard Me!
7. 

   Posted by: Randy R.

   June 11, 2008 at 2:13 pm EST

   To be honest the Thunder is cool I wont lie, throwing it to Verizontell lol is really stupid (extremely stupid). But every carrier has to have an upper hand in something. To be honest for all you know, the Thunder could turn out to be a disaster on verizon it will be nice to touch but then people who are diehard users will miss the keyboard and its functionality (trust me). If by any chance the Thunder makes it way out of verizon’s exclusive hands, which could one day happen (That’s if the masses might throw a tantrum, if it turns out to be a big hit) I will buy it just to show it off. For everything else theres the BOLD, touch screens make us lazy :-X lol.
8. 

   Posted by: DavidB

   June 12, 2008 at 10:10 am EST

   (North America focused ONLY)
   You won’t find ME spreading any “love” for VZW (even though they have been my carrier for like 13 years), but in THIS instance I think RIM has made a VERY smart strategic move.

   iPhone is “exclusive” to ATT, so approaching ATT with the Thunder would have likely just got RIM laughed out the door. You think ATT is going to at all risk ticking off Apple by having a direct competitor side by side in stores? No way. I know there’s a lot of TMO lovers in these parts but face it, their subscriber numbers and subscriber growth mean little opportunity for to sell enough Thunder’s for RIM to recoup development costs. So, essentially, there was insufficient NA market for a GSM Thunder.

   That leaves CDMA. Approaching Sprint with their dwindling customer base would have been dumb. That leaves VZWtel (of course no one at RIM could have LEGALLY known of the Alltel buyout when this was negotiated).

   I have no doubt that VZW will market the HELL out of this thing as better than any iPhone when it hits. It gives them a device with the RIM experience but WITHOUT the baggage that comes with an Apple product (i.e. iTunes). At an appropriately subsidized price (especially if they match/beat the iPhone 3G price points while throwing a microSD card into the mix) Thunder is going to fly off VZW shelves. Business users will likely gobble this thing up with it’s big screen and RIM email ability, and government/military/contractor folks would too if there was a non-camera variant offered.

   Editorially, I think it’s funny all the folks on GSM carriers crying on all the BB sites about not having an opportunity for Thunder. Ah, boo hoo for you. Do any of us on CDMA carriers have an opportunity for Bold? This is the first Blackberry device (ever??) in my recollection that is hitting CDMA before GSM, high time in my opinion. Plus I have no doubt a grey market for these WILL crop up in Europe/Asia/etc. where it’s GSM WILL work.

   And who knows? Who’s to say that a CDMA Bold and a GSM Thunder aren’t just around the corner? I am sure RIM has hedged it’s bets on the unit sales that VZW must meet to keep Thunder exclusivity, and has a GSM Thunder waiting in the wings.
9. 

   Posted by: chirs douser

   August 13, 2008 at 2:51 am EST

   would you be able to unlock the thunder to use on att. I heard that http://www.unlockblackberry.com can do it