Jumped through a few more hoops and once I had got past the automaton that kept repeating "we cannot guarantee service anywhere but in the UK" and through to the Blackberry support team, they informed me (after sending a SIM update) that there has been a problem with the Blackberry PAYG internet server/service both in the UK last week (I don't recall a problem perhaps I was lucky) and it is also affecting my ability to get email here. I am not sure I believe it but it is going nowhere fast and I am done with talking to them. I know nothing about how it selects networks but the fact that a server is down does not seem to be a plausible reason as to why I cannot connect to GSM and just "edge".