I have a Blackberry 7130e, will it work in Australia? Melbourne and Sydney primarily.

 

most likely not.

is verizon GSM yet or are they still CDMA?

 

They have a couple of GSM models but mine is not one of them. I stuck with verizon for their coverage. Now that I am going to start travelling globally on business, I may need to make a switch. Any suggestions?

 

if you really like verizon, stay with them and shop around for a cheap GSM phone either here or overseas. I bought a cheapy one in China and just bought a SIM card for service...much cheaper than using international service with any U.S. carrier.

I had verizon, but switched to Cingular for the rollover minutes since I was overseas a lot. Just got a 7130c myself after paying $500 2 years ago for a freakin' POS RAZR that just sat on my desk while I was away.

I couldn't believe that I paid $500 for a stupid phone that didn't do much more than any other phone, but paid $150 (w/ 2 year contract and good customer rebate) for a 7130c.

 

Verizon and Sprint will never switch to GSM, it's impossible.

OTOH, Cingular will one day switch to a network more similar to CDMA than GSM.

 

It will not. Australia is GSM so if you have Sprint or Verizon service in America, you must take advantage of their International (GSM) roaming services, both Sprint and Verizon have them.

When you go over to new zealand, your Sprint CDMA phone will work fine there.