OK - here is what I have and what I tried today:
Got a BlackBerry 9630 Tour on Verizon Wireless with firmware version 4.7.1.61 and my phone is behind a BES. I have had Verizon Wireless Reps telling me that PTT would be available soon on certain BlackBerry phones by December 2009. 12/2009 has come and gone. Got my hands on the "leaked" 5.0.0.530 firmware version and tried to load it into my Tour. I had to wipe/scrub and "507" my BlackBerry using JL commander before I could get the BlackBerry desktop to load the 5.0 firmware into my phone. After loading the 5.0 firmware, I discovered PTT on/off options under the phone icon and PTT alert tone options in the sounds profiles. I was even able to go into options and in the screen/keyboard options I could select which convenience key to use with PTT. Next, I called Verizon Wireless to ask about adding PTT to my account. Mind you, this is a large corporate account. The lady on the phone was more than happy to look up my account and add PTT to my line. She went silent for a few moments then told me she could not add PTT because I was using a BlackBerry. I told her that I had turned the PTT option on and that I got the "no PTT service available" error when I pushed the convenience key. Long story short, I think I totally confused the lady and I ended the call after thanking her for her help. The fun really started when I went to activate my phone on the BES. I was able to do the enterprise activation but could not receive e-mail. Everything else seemed to work OK but the PTT options went away. Once again, I wiped/scrubbed/507ed the phone, loaded the original 4.7.1.61 firmware, did the enterprise activation and my phone returned to normal.
Sounds like PTT on the Verizon BlackBerry 9630 Tour may finally be here soon!
Ok Here is some added info. Sources indicate that VZW is making their PTT, which has been more or less a bomb, available on several more models including some compatible BB devices, the 9630 being one of them as well as the 9650 to be released shortly. The 530 OS was a very buggy release. Had a lot of problems. The PTT files were in that release and were able to be played around with. That OS beta has since been replaced by OS 5.0.0.548 beta. It has the PTT files, all four modules, and is refined some. It is close to what mey be seen with the Official 5.0 9630 OS to come soon from VZW, along with a similar OS for its new cousin the 9650. 548 has removed a lot of the options being visible to the user as you have seen in 530 when not activated. They are there but hidden.
When VZW releases PTT as an option, those subscribers that have a compatible device such as the 9630 among others will be require to upgrade their OS to the Official 5.0 that is out with the latest .cod files, and have their account provisioned for PTT. $5 per line. At that point Verizon will update and send their service books which will enable the options on the device.
Verizon as you know has had the Qualcom PTT system for years and it is sort of useless unless you happen to have other users who also get the option and use it with you. It will not work with the famous Nextel Iden PTT users as VZW and Sprint refuse to enable a cross platform interface, and the Sprint Nextel iden system is the only place where the PTT is widely deployed and therefor relevent at all. But it will be available such as it is. With the addition of the ability for VZW customers to be able to PTT with the large Nextel PTT base the feature would take right off. We'll see what happens.
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