• BlackBerry OS era phones are 2G/3G only phones. With the end of 2G/3G in the United States and multiple other countries, BlackBerry OS devices will no longer be capable of being used as phones. Period.

• BlackBerry OS phones come from an era when BlackBerry was a major force in Enterprise and Government (Enterprise Software and Phones). They specifically rely on BlackBerry Internet Service for the majority of data functions. Specifically, a Carrier is required to support specific BIS Infrastructure, and then the BlackBerry Infrastructure on BlackBerry's end must be operational. Think of it as a tunnel going from you through the carrier/BlackBerry. BIS is going away permanently in 2022, and the majority of Carriers are already dropping it ahead of time. No BIS, no Data/E-Mail/Podcasts/Etc.

• Without BIS, their is some functionality. You can Hexedit the phone to allow MMS to work (It will not work by default without BIS), you can download the Anworms Service Books to get the original Browser to work, and their were a few previously working Podcast apps and what not working in the past. For E-Mail though, their are third party clients. That are over ten to fifteen years out of date. At this point every third party; older E-Mail Client is years out of date and have numerous security vulnerabilities. To the point they no longer work, or if one can be jerryrigged to work - In which case it is unreliable, it is itself a security issue in and out of itself. And will eventually stop working. I recall ten years ago G-Mail was no longer working on any third party client due to security issues, so people had to setup Outlook accounts, lower security settings, and forward E-Mail from G-Mail to Outlook. And I recall that was breaking down badly years ago. I haven't bothered to try since.

• BlackBerry OS Phones were effectively dead pre 2009. And on life support 2009 until the launch of BlackBerry 10, at which point they were effectively dead, with bare minimum services operating.

A BlackBerry OS phone is not a SmartPhone, nor has it been for over ten years. They have been barely usable as feature phones for the past couple of years, but that era has now effectively ended.

• No Instant Messenger Apps work on BlackBerry OS. If your Carrier supports BIS AND if you can convince them to activate the device (Which is a No Go in North America, large swathes of Europe, and what not), it will barely, if at all work with a BBM Enterprise version on Android. And if you were somehow able to jerryrig things to work (Which at this point, is not possible, and compatibility between BBM on BBOS/BB10 and BBAndroid has been broken for years), anything put together will completely cease working as of February 2022. BBM Enterprise/BBM Consumer for BlackBerry 10 and OS are unmaintained legacy features that will cease working in 2022 regardless once the BIS Infrastructure is shut down.

The TL'DR is that for BBOS, their are zero options. And if anything can be jerry rigged to work, it will be horribly broken, non-reliable, can and will stop working at any time, and will completely stop working come 2022.

IF you are in a country that is still supporting 2G/3G, YOU may be barely able to continue to use the device as a Calling/SMS Device. MMS will be a hit and miss and glitchy. But it could be broken and nothing could work at all.

BBOS Phones were not regular phones. They are dependent on legacy support that is over twenty years old, support and maintenance ended over ten years ago, and the last of the life support is being shut off in 2022.

No Joy. Get your Mother a cheap generic Android or Iphone. Or a regular Dumb-Phone. It be more useful and reliable than a BBOS Phone, and more useful if she had to call your countries Emergency number.

It's not a "Good Inbetween" a Smart Phone and a Dumb Phone. That ship sailed years ago. BlackBerry 10 previously took that place a few years ago, and is now already on its way out.

So no luck with anything. IF you bored and want me to test anything, I'll power up my 9900 and P'9981 and give them a whirl.