T-Mobile and Blackberry 8700g
Author
Discussion

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Monday 12th June 2006
quotequote all
Any one got one?

Thinking about chopping in my Nokia 6230i (which is on 02) as its broken. I've got a couple of months left on my 02 contract but my account is in a lot of credit so I could buy myself out of the contract.

I've never had any experience of T-Mobile but there Flext plans look good value as you get a set amount of money each month to spend on calls/texts but you don't define exactly how many you want. The email push service is an extra £10 per month.

So are T-Mobile to be avoided like they used to be or have they improved?
My plan is to get my 6230i repaired/replaced so that I have a spare handset to use when I go out to the pub etc and don't want to take a bulky phone.

I had a quick look at an 02 Xda Mini S in a shop the other day but it felt very flimsy and tacky + it wouldn't have the email push service.

At the end of the day I just fancy a new toy to play with!


Phill

cnjohnson

9,586 posts

273 months

Monday 12th June 2006
quotequote all
I was on T Mobile up until 3 years ago when I needed a business price plan with multiple handsets. I always found the coverage and customer service to be 1st class.

Minnie

131 posts

248 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
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I have been with T Mobile for years.....and all very happy years too! Recently changed over to the Flext account and so far have been very happy with it.

Don't have the surfing though!

aranell

868 posts

254 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
I have a Blackberry on T-mobile for work and it's always been good for me. We tend to get at least one "problem" alert email from them a day but it only seems to affect small areas. Their service and coverage appears to be much better than Orange. I'd definitely recommend them.

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Sounds good,

I might pop in to the local shop and see if they will buy me out of the contract. You never know!

Phill.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
There is a blackberry plugin for WM5 now so you can connect a Blackberry server to a WM5 device and get push email.

However, writing your own push email system isnt all that complicated, you just need a bit of vbscript in Outlook and a text message gateway.

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
There is a blackberry plugin for WM5 now so you can connect a Blackberry server to a WM5 device and get push email.

However, writing your own push email system isnt all that complicated, you just need a bit of vbscript in Outlook and a text message gateway.



That would obviously mean leaving my PC on at home all day to allow email forwarding to take place? Am I right?

I need to contact my domain hosts to ask whether their services allow the use of Blackberry's. As far as I can work out it just needs a POP account to work. In which case it will pick up the emails in the same way as I currently do on my PDA via wireless networks.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
You would need Outlook on at all times you need to get remote email, yes.

Though Blackberry Server is a package which installs on top of a mail server I believe, distributed as a binary installer.

For this to work on the remote web based mail server you would I think need total control of that mail server, like in a dedicated server scenario.

Though some hosts may have a Blackberry hosting package...

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
According to t-mobile said:
The T-Mobile Instant Email service is designed to work with any Internet email account that supports the POP3 protocol.


Saying that the Blackberry 8700g is a "Corporate Blackberry" so i'm not sure if that makes any difference to the way it "pulls" emails to the device.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
I'd be assuming that the Blackberry Server will run locally in that case getting email from a remote server via POP3 and then pushing it on.

See always on proviso of Outlook solution...

Ahhh, just twigged. TMobile have a blackberry server, you configure your Tmob blackberry account online to look at a mail account. The mail gets pulled from your internet mail account to TMobile and then pushed to the Blackberry.

Edited by Plotloss on Tuesday 13th June 13:43

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Cheers Matt,

Just dropped T-Mobile an email asking whether or not I would need the blackberry software installed either on my PC or at my hosting company.

I'll let you know the result.


Phill

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
See edit, is this instant email a pay service? If so I would have thought it would work as above.

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
See edit, is this instant email a pay service? If so I would have thought it would work as above.


Ah yes it is. About £10 per month. Looks like it will work then!

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Mind you £10 a month does buy probably a server running 24/7's worth of electric...

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Plotloss said:
Mind you £10 a month does buy probably a server running 24/7's worth of electric...



mmmm Thats interesting. I wonder if I can tag it onto my existing hosting package (I know the owner so I don't pay anything for my hosting) then just pay a "web 'n' walk" charge.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Tuesday 13th June 2006
quotequote all
Alternatively set your email up as IMAP and pay £7 a month for unlimited data in Pocket Outlook on a WM5 device.

Thus obviating the need for any of this push pull malarky.

pmanson

Original Poster:

13,388 posts

283 months

Thursday 15th June 2006
quotequote all
Ok i've been having a look at this. There "Instant E-Mail Service" is subject to a fair use policy as follows:

"Use of Instant E-Mail is subject to a fair use policy of 50Mb of data per month. If a customer exceeds 50Mb in a given month, we may request the customer reduce their usage of the service. If usage of the Instant E-Mail service continues to exceed 50Mb per month, T-Mobile may move the user to another Instant E-Mail plan, and they may lose the right to move back to the original Instant E-Mail plan. We reserve the right to vary this policy, but will notify you if we do"

Is that to stop business customers using it? I probably only receive half a dozen to a dozen emails a day and as far as i'm aware you can stop it from downloading pics etc.

Does it sound reasonable?

Phill

Plotloss

67,280 posts

300 months

Thursday 15th June 2006
quotequote all
Just get the unlimited web and walk and either host your own blackberry server or use IMAP