The Real Middle East Conflict
As I've discovered from my time here in Israel, the real Middle East conflict isn't between Jewish and Arab states...
It's with the cellphone companies! For anyone who has lived or had an extended stay in Israel, I hope you didn't have to get cell phone service while you were here. It's a complete nightmare. Especially if you bring an amazingly fantastic UNLOCKED Blackberry Bold from America. I have spent the last 5 days trying to get my phone to agree with Cellcom, one of Israel's largest cell phone providers. At first we thought I just needed a new SIM card...wrong. I checked every online forum I could for an answer. I got nothing. After a couple of days we decided to just bring the phone to Cellcom; they'll know what to do, right?
Horribly wrong.
If there was ever a utpoia where uber-tanned, mildly attractive and self centered robot women go to work... it's Cellcom. Bless them for having the patience to deal with angry Israeli cell phone users all day, but if the average person is supposed to use the brain for logical thought, these women missed the memo.
I tried everything my geeky little brain could think of... change settings in the advanced options menu, try unlocking the phone all over again, try another SIM card because maybe this one is faulty, bring it to this guy he knows everything, bring it to that guy he knows more!
Nothing worked.
The revelation came as we were having lunch at a friend's house.
(I'll give them mutual praise for this, or else I'll have to sit through another argument about who figured it out.)
The answer was as simple as replacing my SIM card with that of my girlfriend's. It sounds simple and we already tried it with another couple of SIM cards. This solution worked because her card was an older version. Cellcom had given me a USIM card. It's a newer version of their SIM. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on an unlocked Blackberry Bold. So, if you are planning on coming to Israel or are in Israel now and are having this same problem, here's the answer...
Go to Cellcom and tell them to give you a basic or older type of SIM card. Works perfectly!
Also, after I put the SIM card in... my phone kept dialing +1 on every contact I tried to call. This is easily fixed by pressing the talk button, then press the menu button, then go to "options", then go to "smart dialing". In this menu change the country code to that of the country you are in. Israel is +972. Finally, change the "National number length" to the appropriate number. Israel is 12. Hope this helps someone!!
