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Mobal & Blackberry
Hi folks
I have a Mobal SIM and am traveling to Europe in a few weeks. A workmate has offered to loan me their Blackberry for my trip, so I can keep on top of emails without needing to take a laptop. Has anyone used a Mobal SIM with a Blackberry before? I think the blackberry is on AT&T by the way. Chuck |
Any sim will work in any unlocked phone. Now, I am not aware that the mobal sims are data capable. And, even if they are, using it with a blackberry will be another story.
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They are data capable but I don't think they offer any bb plan for push e-mail... maybe you can manually check your mail, but it will cost you A LOT...
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If the BB is on T-Mobile (U.S.), you can get intl. BB service added on for about 70 cents/day for the time you need it. (Includes email but not data.) ATT intl. BB requires a term commitment (one year?) and is $30/mo extra as a recall. BB is just now becoming available on a prepaid basis. (I think the first country is UK.) Mobal would not have it - yet. ...mike |
just a question for interest: why do you need a special plan for blackberries? Cant they just connect to the blackbarry server over whatever internet connection the mobile operator offers? Or do they wanna earn $$$ from each mobile operator for a license?
Chris |
Blackberry connections require access to two APNs, blackberry and blackberry2. All carriers I know of don't allow access to them without a separate subscription.
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Ah, they do it on APN level. Thats a smart model to make loads of cash :)
thanks for the info It would be interesting to test with a o2 SIM in germany. o2 does not differ between APN names, you can just set your phone to the APN "billgatesloveswindows" and will still get internet access with it... |
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I really don't get much the sense of BB, I even don't like them as interface, I'm totally happy with my Nokia E71! :) |
Blackberry prepaid service is available on Digicel (they are now offering 1,2,4 week packages in Bermuda and also in Caribbean countries that have Digicel networks) Digicel Prepaid Blackberry service This would be a good solution for Caribbean blackberry coverage without the committment since Digicel allows some Digicel network prepaid roaming at reasonable rates, but wouldn't help much on other networks in North America or Europe where the rates would be much higher.
Blackberries can be tricked in some instances to access the web and standard email services, I've seen this done with Nextel-Iden blackberries ("Boost Berries)and Verizon CDMA blackberries (PagePlus Blackberries) in the US. Probably a similar procedure with a GSM blackberry, but you would still need some sort of data access and a good question is whether it would be worth the price. Might be worth contacting Mobal to ask if they can officially arrange Blackberry service for your device rather than the clandestine route. |
Effendi -
As you probably know, BB use in many places has become an addiction. President Obama, for one. I think I'm about to get one and give up my 6 year old SE, even though it still works fine. How much is charged for BB in Italy? ...mike |
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Chris |
It is possible to fool some Blackberries to use an alternative APN but its important to note the costs associated with doing so. Yes Blackberry by standard uses its own APN connection to each MNO having exclusive deals with certain ones in particular regions. Using this particular APN means that the network operator can tariff it differently and have access to the Blackberry APN at a set monthly fee no matter what the usage is and all other mobile data is charged per packet. This means for example using Blackberry over the UM data product could end up being far more expensive than using a standard Blackberry tariff.
As you know I work for Cloud9 but I am based in the UK and therefore have an O2 Blackberry as I get unlimited international Blackberry service for only £13 extra per month. It is just not possible for the current global roaming products to offer this packaged deal for the reason above, you pay per packet you have no idea how much data you will transmit. That being said, Blackberry service is next on the Cloud9 roadmap to be offered to our resellers to sell to the end users! PS. Before working at C9 I spend 10 years working in mobile data and met RIM at a conference in Germany in 2000 or sometime close to that, ages ago anyway, when I was selling circuit switched/gprs data mobility and made the mistake thinking the fact it was so insecure would mean it would be dead in the water... how wrong was i on that!! Sometimes it may not please the IT team that anyone can pick it up and read your emails, but people do love Blackberry even if it is the most intrusive gadget in the entire history of mankind. So to sum up, I would actually recommend checking the rates for adding international blackberry service with the current owners provider it will most likely be cheaper than using a global roaming data service and will work with full support. Use your global roaming for calls obviously! Hope this helps Cheers David |
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BB in Italy on prepaid costs 12€/month with Wind, with unlimited e-mail and surfing. With TIM it's 15€/month including 400MB of e-mails and unlimited surfing. With Vodafone it's 3€/week, including 500MB. |
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Does anyone know if what T-Mobile USA is offering will indeed include data and not just e-mail when abroad, as they seem to have an option that costs 20 USD extra that claims to offer just international e-mail & not other data. AT&T's equivalent offer costs more but includes everything. If T-Mobile USA's offer actually does include e-mail or even all BIS traffic I will get it next time I see myself going outside the US.
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it when you get back (unless you gave them a stop date when you turned it on.) ...mike |
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CallInEurope offers a BlackBerry option but it's pretty expensive (something like 3$/day) for anything over a week just in the country your SIM is assigned to and I think it doesn't include non-BIS data, so that would be charged extra at the usual high roaming rates. |
ATT's plan does include on device data, but requires a one year commitment. If you are on a Blackberry enterprise plan on device data is functionally included on many of these plans because the carrier can't see what data is going back to your company server. They can, however, see the megabytes. If you do a little IMing or surfing on the device, it will fly through the system. Tethering the device and downloading your favorite movie from Bit Torrent is a different story.
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