Tether Your Verizon Blackberry to an iPad Using Bluetooth

I recently setup my iPad to use bluetooth to connect  to my Verizon Blackberry Tour 9630 so I could access the Internet (and my customer's VPN's) from anywhere I can get cell reception.

Doing this requires you to "Jailbreak" your iPad, a process that opens up the device for non-Apple approved software.  This is not an action that everyone will want to do, but then again not everyone wants to use their iPad to access the Internet from anywhere.

These instructions are rather specific to Verizon and Blackberry but can be modified for other providers and phones.  Please do not ask me how to setup your phone, use the web.


Here's the requirements:

• A jailbroken iPad (mine is iOS 4.2.1)
• iBluever (Demo version for testing, full version once it's working) installed from Cydia onto iPad
• Blackberry (mine is a Tour 9630), although other devices can be used
• Verizon tethering plan ($15/month).  If you don't want to pay $15/month for a tethering plan you can use PDANet or hack your phone in order to tether without the plan.  I haven't tried this, I just pay the $15/month.

Once you have jailbroken your iPad and installed iBluever:

1. Turn the iPad Wi-Fi off as it will interfere with the use of iBluever 
2. Turn the iPad bluetooth off.  Delete the Blackberry bluetooth connection from the iPad if it has been detected previously by the iPad
3. Enable bluetooth on the Blackberry
4. Establish bluetooth connection from iPad to Blackberry using iBluever, just to create the paired bluetooth connection on the Blackberry.  The first connection will not work but we need to create the connection in order to edit its settings. See the Internet for iBluever instructions. My iBluever settings:

Access Point -
Dial Number -	#777 (This is Verizon-specific)
Account -
Password -
Chat Script -	Default Non GPRS
Authentication -	On
Wait for SDP -	On

5. Turn iBluever connection off to disconnect
6. Disable encryption for iPad bluetooth connection on Blackberry
7. Return to iBluever and connect again
8. Once you are sure you can use iBluever (Demo) to connect, delete iBluever (Demo)
9. Re-enable Wi-Fi on the iPad and purchase the full version of iBluever from Cydia ($5 US)
10. Open iBluever and activate it
11. Disable Wi-Fi on the iPad (I have actually used iBluever with Wi-Fi turned on but it really weirds out the bluetooth connection)
12. Configure iBluever with the same settings you used previously (above)
13. Experience awesome connectivity!

My speed testing shows around .5 to 1 Mbps speeds.  Not bad for a 3G connection and certainly enough to perform admin duties over an RDP connection and more than enough for SSH sessions.

Please do not ask me for help with your specific configuration.  Use the web and learn.