Is there any drawback to Verizon for Blackberry service? Most of the people I know have Cincular but I have had great experience with Verizon for cell coverage and would like to use a single device rather than a separate phone and blackberry.

Shawn, just moved over to a BB 7750 on Verizon. I am using the redirector service off Outlook until my company installs BES. Also using the new Web Client. My email, both personal and corporate are flowing to my device flawlessly and the phone coverage as you know is great. Go for it.

You mentioned the Outlook redirector. Does that mean that I need a server online to redirect my e-mail if the company does not employ the Blackberry server software? Or, is that only used to keep the e-mail synchronized? I need to be able to receive the e-mail but I understand that I need to synchronize when I re-connect to the mail server.

Shawn - before you buy a BlackBerry, you need to do some research. What type of e-mail do you currently have? Do you have an Exchange e-mail system or do you want to retrieve POP3 e-mail. Does you company have a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (I assume no).

If you have Exchange, with no BES, you must run the BlackBerry Redirector, which runs on a PC which is connected to your network, has access to your e-mail server and must be left on 24X7.

If you want POP3 e-mail, you can use the BlackBerry Web Client, which is FINALLY available from Verizon.

If you have a BES, talk to your e-mail admins.

Hope that helps.

Shawn, NJ is correct that if your Exchange Server has BES installed, your email will sync to the BB. Redirector runs on your PC and will forward email as long as it is online with Exchange (not in offline mode). The difference between sync and forward is with the former, if you delete at one end, it dissappears on the other whereas with forward you have 2 copies. I have Redirector running on my laptop. Once I disconnect, no more email to the BB. WebClient however will still deliver your personal email if you set it up to do so. Its still worth it to me as a salesman as when I am on the road, I always try to get a hotel room with high speed internet. I can then hook up and leave it in the hotel and still get email. Until my company gets BES installed, I will miss email while on the run, but I will still be better off than before and when IT finally gets things going, I will just switch to BES and always be connected. Its still worth it to me with limited Redirector function, always on personal email and WAP browsing.