Lost CONTACT list after SIM card change requested by operator

Question

Dear All, this is my first post, so please bear with me.  I am recurring to this forum to ask for HELP on an issue that is really annoying, specially after spending over an hour with a BlackBerry Support Person who tried many steps to solve the issue without any luck [it was obvious this person did not have the technical expertise to handle the problem at hand].  Here's the story:  Last week I received on the mail a new SIM card with a letter indicating I had to replace my "old" SIM card with this new one, after receiving a text message from the operator.  On Friday I received the SMS and proceeded with the change.  Prior to exchanging SIM Cards, I asked the Call Center Agent if this would cause any problems with my 8520 BB.  The answer was NO, all the configuration info remains on the device, and not on the SIM card.  Well, this was not the case and some applications lost their configuration: email and contacts. Curiously, the BBM service was unaltered.  So I would like to know how can I get back my Contact List? (the email service was quickly and easily reconfigured).  Apparently my old Contact list is somewhere in the Device's memory... but a New Contact List has been created after the SIM Card change.  I know this because when I press the Call History, all the contacts' info is available ... but when pressing the Contacts Address I can only see 1 contact.  Any ideas???? Thank You All.

Answer 1

This is a fun little (and I mean little) problem. Let's walk through it here.
1) Some applications lost email and contact configurations.
A) I'm not entirely sure what you mean in particular as far as the email problem goes. Were the e-mails still set up, but you weren't receiving them? Most likely because the new SIM card contained a new ID number. If you were to go to Options > Advanced Options > Host Routing Tables, press the menu button, and hit Register...that should fix your problem there.
2) BBM Service was unaltered. 
A) This is because the BBM service is reliant on the PIN number unique to your device (not your SIM card).
3) Lost contact list, but still showing in the call history.
A) Your call history is just data stored on the device, the only time your contact history is access when sending and making a call is just a simple check to see if you have the information stored already to match a name to it. The data stored in history is it's own entity. I explained this in a slightly confusing manner, but it's slightly irrelevant.
It's entirely possible that your contact list was stored on your SIM card and not to your device. Try this out:
-Insert your old SIM card into your phone
-Open up your contacts and hit the menu button
-Scroll down and select "SIM Phone Book"
-Here you should see the list of contacts if they were truly stored on your SIM and not your phone.
-Hit the menu button again, and choose "Copy all to Contacts"
Once the process is complete,  you may reinsert the new SIM card and continue on using the phone as normal.
Hope this helps!
Disclaimer: I'm just a regular user like the rest of you. I have spent a lot of time learning the limitations of the Blackberries to know how to fix most problems. If I have suggested a fix, please give a kudo and mark as a solution!