Anyone know anything about the Blackberry??

[rash_decision]

Hi, I'm looking for some info on the Blackberry my work have recently issued me! The I.T. boffins threw it at me and basically told me to get on with it!

I'm out in the Middle East at the moment on business (Oman), and am slightly concerned about the charges. It seems that my Blackberry is constantly connected to a data network of some kind, which I guess is to allow it to send/receive E-mail messages. On my own phone, I know there is a charge for such connections, or does the Blackberry send/receive messages in a similar way to SMS messages, connecting/disconnecting as and when required?? I'm just concerned I will return to the U.K. after my 3 week trip with an astranomical bill!!!

Thanks.

[Pferdestarke]

I would imagine in the depths of its menus there will be an option to manually connect, rather than giving the device free-reign.

I don't have one so cannot guide you through the menus. Sure someone will be along soon.

[Don]

Did you want the emails? I take it they are work emails you are supposed to be getting?

The Blackberry email service is usually charged seperately to the use of the Internet so if you do not surf with it then getting the emails should be OK. I have no idea if this is the case abroad.

You can always go into "Manage Connections" and switch it all off.

But then it will be about as useful as a brick and you might as well switch the thing completely off and leave it in your suitcase!

Why not call your IT group and ask what you should do? Charges abroad for data/calls/etc are usually ludicrous but given this is not your personal phone it should be your firm's problem to tell you how they want its usage managed.

[3200gt]

When in the UK your service provider EITHER charges you a fixed rate for the email push pull (normally around £10 per month) OR it is free as part of your contract. Mine is free with the contract (Orange) and when I have been away from UK shores I have never had additional email costs. Call costs, now thats another matter!

[Ordinary_Chap]

If you are on a UK contract you will need to ensure roaming is on otherwise you'll get spanked. I think on O2 its about 5 pound a day but you'd need to have that conversation with your provider because contracts do differ.

Incidentally if you are using just email and no internet browsing or any applications that use a lot of network data then the average usage is about 5mb per month thanks to Blackberry's data compression.

However that average may not be true if you're in a foreign country and the network isn't so clever which means the device has to keep retrying to download data because signal quality isn't good.

[rash_decision]

Thanks for your replies. It's purely for work E-mail. It is functioning perfectly, but it was just a worry about the charges. The I.T. dept have been very very slow in getting back to me with a breakdown of charges. I've been asking every other day via E-mail for over a fortnight now!! They must have more important issues.

[Deva Link]

Do you work for a biggish company? If so, then don't worry about it.

[rash_decision]

Deva Link said:

Do you work for a biggish company? If so, then don't worry about it.

I work for an enormous company, so I assume they have struck an excellent deal for our phones, there will be literally thousands of them globally!! At least 5-600 in the UK alone, so BT, whom we are with, should be good.

[Slinky]

rash_decision said:

Deva Link said:

Do you work for a biggish company? If so, then don't worry about it.

I work for an enormous company, so I assume they have struck an excellent deal for our phones, there will be literally thousands of them globally!! At least 5-600 in the UK alone, so BT, whom we are with, should be good.

Why are you concerned about the charges? You aren't going to foot the bill surely?

[Deva Link]

Slinky said:

rash_decision said:

Deva Link said:

Do you work for a biggish company? If so, then don't worry about it.

I work for an enormous company, so I assume they have struck an excellent deal for our phones, there will be literally thousands of them globally!! At least 5-600 in the UK alone, so BT, whom we are with, should be good.

Why are you concerned about the charges? You aren't going to foot the bill surely?

In my last big corporate job they didn't think you were working hard enough unless your mobile bill was a grand a month.

[rash_decision]

Slinky said:

rash_decision said:

Deva Link said:

Do you work for a biggish company?  If so, then don't worry about it.

I work for an enormous company, so I assume they have struck an excellent deal for our phones, there will be literally thousands of them globally!! At least 5-600 in the UK alone, so BT, whom we are with, should be good.

Why are you concerned about the charges? You aren't going to foot the bill surely?

I'm not concerned about the useage charges as such. I was concerned that it was set up correctly, and not maybe connected to some overseas provider 24/7 which it wasn't meant to be, which would run up a massive bill!!! The I.T dept never told us a thing about how to use the handset or anything else for that matter!!

[Mr Obertshaw]

I work for Vodafone and many customers call up to query their bills after travelling abroad with their Blackberry. In order for your push email to work (blackberry messenger) it is connecting to the internet.

It all depends on what data package you have on your account, as to the charges you will receive. Consumer customers can easily run up a £50 bill in a few days just from receiving emails, as the internet whilst roaming is generally very expensive.

You can however turn off the internet completely on your phone through the settings or ask your service provider to suspend the messenger service.

See charges for using Blackberry whilst abroad... £4.99 per mb.

http://www.abroad.vodafone.co.uk/index.cfm?do=abro...

[AB]

I want to see a tub of custard, you and a Vodafone building - together.

[Blown2CV]

is it enterprise activated

[rash_decision]

Blown2CV said:

is it enterprise activated

Yes it is, whatever it is!!

[Blown2CV]

rash_decision said:

Blown2CV said:

is it enterprise activated

Yes it is, whatever it is!!

reason i ask is that the policy is enforced by the enterprise server. That is, your company have a central server where all BBs can be administered from. Incidentally, this is the real business benefit of the platform, there is no tangible benefit for the actual user. Anyway, my point is that if they wanted to prevent you from doing something like roaming calls, they can do it from the BES centrally. Basically, knock yourself out, its their responsibility. If they saw fit to give you a BB and you travel a lot with work, that's their issue not yours. Also, they probably did it so you can stay in touch from abroad anyway.