Blackberry Phones and Services in India

[woof]

My 1.5 yr old N95 is giving me lot of problems these days. Thinking of getting a new phone. Just wanted to know, does it makes sense to buy a blackberry without going for the BIS plan. Will normal GPRS/EDGE work? I have a vodafone connection.

[JVH]

Originally Posted by woof

My 1.5 yr old N95 is giving me lot of problems these days. Thinking of getting a new phone. Just wanted to know, does it makes sense to buy a blackberry without going for the BIS plan. Will normal GPRS/EDGE work? I have a vodafone connection.

Please read through the thread. A BB without a BIS plan is useless. Not recommended.

[mobike008]

Originally Posted by jgsolo27

Hi!

Waiting for details!! Airtel sometime back refused to provide BISLITE Plan@299 along with GPRS (any plan). Sure the details would be useful for us.

Originally Posted by Jaggu

Why dont you share the details, will be useful for others.

@Anmol, another guy waiting for same detail. Please be a little detailed so all of us can benefit from this side-stepping trick

[anmolbedi]

Jgsolo27, Jaggu, Mobike008 and all fellow mates...

There is a trick in getting both services.

Step1: Call up BB support at 7070 or email bb.support@airtel.in and get the blackberry email lite plan activated. Dont call up CC till its activated. Once activated configure all your email accounts, gtalk etc. Confirm that your emails are getting delivered without any issue.

Step2: Get an old phone from your freind / if you have another normal phone, put your SIM in it and call up 121 helpdesk and ask them to activate GPRS on your phone, plan choice as per your requirement, lots of plans are available - 99/Rent free/199/299 etc. If the CC asks you which phone you use, tell them you have a GSM phone from which you are talking and you would also need settings for Mobile Office. Just convince them that you dont have a BB. And now wait for GPRS to get activated - should take 4 hours.

Step3: After you get a message from Airtel for GPRS activation, confirm with CC that its is on. Now put your SIM into BB handset, goto Advanced Options-> TCP/IP. Put the APN: airtelgprs.com and in APN authentication, select it to be on but dont put any username or password. Save the settings and come out of the menu.

Step4: open connections -> select mobile network and disable-enable the mobile network so that it would search again on network for Airtel.

Step5: Open Opera (what I use) on your BB and goto options-> disable wifi. And after saving the options, you can now browse the internet without any problem.

And this is how the cookie crumbles !! Yes, finally it should work !!

For any more details you can PM me.

Thanks
Anmol

[mobike008]

Anmol, thanks, your a smart cookie !

I will try this over the weekend. Hope they dont recognize me as an already existing BB user.

[anmolbedi]

@Mobike,

Thats why you need to convince them, that you use a normal Nokia and not a BB !!

[Jaggu]

Oh ok, thanks for the info. Basically you should have both the plans active and then change the APN, gotchaaa!

[nandishpal]

but as anmolbedi said changing your sim to a normal phone is a compulsion.if you call from the BB handset they will know that you are using a BB handset with the imei #.

[deepakchan]

Research in Motion (RIM) and Reliance India Mobile (RIM) have officially launched BB Tour 9630 for Rs.27,990 right in time just for you

Source: Fonearena (dot) com / blog

Originally Posted by quickdraw

If you absolutely have to stick to Reliance and they have agreed to activate a NON Reliance branded blackberry you have a lot of options, go to gsmarena.com and take a look at the BB models there which support CDMA. But in my opinion you would be fine with a Storm or a maybe a nice 8830. But I suggest you put money down for a Tour its definately worth it. And the only good option right now in CDMA.

[JVH]

Thanks Anmol!

Would this also work with a Vodafone connection?

[jgsolo27]

Originally Posted by anmolbedi

@Mobike,

Thats why you need to convince them, that you use a normal Nokia and not a BB !!

After putting my SIM in a Nokia Phone, I called up Airtel CC and got the plan details/rates of MO. The CC Executive himself asked, after explaining the tariff," Sir, you are using a Nokia 3110C, which plan you want me to activate for you?" I have asked him to activate MO 99 and am waiting for the confirmation message! Keeping my fingers crossed. Will post the results once everything is through.

[anmolbedi]

@Jgsolo27,

Best of luck!! awaiting results

JVH,

I dont have a vodafone connection... but it should work with vodafone's APN. APN address: www

[Jaggu]

Actually you can activate the plan by sending an ACTV "Plan" sms to the 222 number from your handset once you get the Plan Acronym.

EDIT: Shaju: maybe here is the root cause of your problem, Airtel might not have activated the GPRS when you contacted them using BB headset.

Ps: Airtel never could figure out am using iPhone in all my interactions with them, even the IMEI number i had to present to them.

[mobike008]

On second thoughts if you calculate, savings are not that phenomenal.

If you get the annual plan for Rs.6999 it works out to Rs.583/Month and this trick will save you Rs.185/month.

But, i am still going to try this method

[DueLLeR]

I got my unlocked BB Curve 8310 last week. Before buying the BB, I was using a Nokia E51 on LoopMobile with a 499/mo GPRS pack. I was sure as heck that I will not activate BIS/BES and pay more for the same thing in a new package!

As of today, I'm running my BB to the fullest, including the inbuilt BB browser. The only things not working are the BB e-mail (I use the Gmail app) and BB Messenger (plenty of free IM apps available for BB), without a BIS/BES plan.

1. Installing Opera Mini

The first thing I did was enter the APN settings and GPRS came to life. But with the BB Browser asking for service book entries, I could not do much. So, I installed Opera Mini for BB using the Desktop Manager. So far so good.

2. Installing Gmail and Google Maps

Next, I tried OtA download of Gmail and Google Maps through Opera Mini as they cannot be downloaded to a computer. Sadly, the Opera Mini's user agent identifies the BB as just "8310." As a result, Google thinks it's an unknown phone for which they don't have an app. By installing a user agent switcher add-on in Firefox, I could create a "dummy" Blackberry user agent and managed to download the .jad files. Next, I created a .alx file and separately downloaded the .jar files into the same folder. Fired up the Desktop Manager and installed the apps. In some situations, the Desktop Manager will not let you install new apps by stating no updates were found. You need another piece of software from Blackberry. Don't remember the name now!

3. Enabling the BB Browser

Opera Mini, though very versatile, cannot do many things that the BB Browser can. For example, downloading and installing OtA apps, downloading files, and viewing videos on YouTube through the Media Player. To enable the browser, you need the service book entries, which are pushed to your phone by your provider WHEN you sign up for BIS/BES. What to do?

Follow the instructions of a smart Vietnamese (Home (BlackBerry Without BIS)) and viola! The BB Browser is working just fine without BIS/BES.

I should have done point 3 first, to make the first two simpler. However, as luck would have it, I found this out last.

Cheers!
DueLLeR