[bjpearce]

I'm hoping that someone will be able to answer my question. I'm currently using a 9900 on a corporate paid BES Plan. My company has no intention to upgrade to BES 10 and is starting to push a BYOD policy with iPhone and Android. My 9900 is dying and I have no option to replace the device.

I would like to purchase a new Q10 and have a new SIM micro issued so I can use my current corporate BES data plan. I understand that by doing so, I will lose access to all of my current BES features, like calendar and email. My question is, will the phone and data plan work with this configuration?

Thanks.

[Skatophilia]

From what I know only the legacy devices will be able to work with the BES plan, as I was hoping to be able to puchase a Z10 and use an older Blackberry plan because it was much cheaper, however I was told on this Forum that it is not possible

[jpvj]

Hi,

Based on the information you have posted it is not possible to give you an excact answer.

Let's start with PIM sync: BB10 works with Exchange Active Sync (EAS) just like iOS and Android devices. If you company has published EAS on the Internet, there should be no reason for a BB10 not to work (unless they specifically blocks them).
If they are going with another sync solution, like Good for Enterprise, you might not be lucky. You might have luck getting the Q10 to run the Android version if using BB OS 10.2.1.1925. You are however totally on your own without any vendor or company support.

Regarding the SIM. BB10 does not require the BlackBerry provisioning on the SIM cards as the legacy devices do. They do however require a dataplan like any other smartphone does. So it all depends whether the SIM with BES plan can be used as a "standard SIM with data" (you could test with iOS or Android). Technically it is a question about which APN's are open on your subscription.

Be aware that a BB10 device will consume conciderably more data - potentially more than iPhone Android because the browser often is not detected as a mobile browser and will serve the full desktop version of a webpage. Depending on the amount of data and the usage, you might hit the limit. Ask you carrier what happens then.

Hope this helps.

[bjpearce]

Thanks for the responses. My company uses "Air Watch" which is only available for iPhone and Android. My main problem is that I must have a BES data plan which I'm not able to change because my company controls the billing. Since the 9900 uses a standard SIM Card size, it's difficult to find a non-Blackberry to test to see if the phone data will still operate.

[jpvj]

Call your carrier and ask or post your carrier here and wait for somebody with knowledge to answer.

[bjpearce]

My carrier is Rogers Wireless in Canada.

[qwerty4ever]

BlackBerry 10 smartphones DO NOT use the features of legacy BES or BIS data plans. Your BlackBerry 10 smartphone will NOT work with a BES 5 server. How does your company intend to manage the Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones? Something tells me your IT department is managed by ID10Ts.

[bjpearce]

BlackBerry 10 smartphones DO NOT use the features of legacy BES or BIS data plans. Your BlackBerry 10 smartphone will NOT work with a BES 5 server. How does your company intend to manage the Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones? Something tells me your IT department is managed by ID10Ts.

Thanks for the response. I understand that:

1. BlackBerry 10 features like corporate email, calendar etc. will not work on a legacy data plan because my company does not have the BES 10 server.
2. My company uses AirWatch for iPhone and Android but this is only for the BYOD policy, not for company paid phones.

I would like to know if a BlackBerry 10 phone be able to operate on BES Data Plan for normal personal uses like BBM, Gmail, Apps, etc?

[MobileMadness002]

As long as your companys BES feature includes a data bucket, 2gb or 1gb, it will work just fine. As for using the BB NOC, nope, wont happen. There is NO difference in data plans for the Androids than for BlackBerry 10 devices. As for the "Air Watch", this sounds like the fella posting in another thread asking the same thing. Consensus was no as the application is NOT running on an actual Android device and as of this OS update, Android apps no longer run headless.

[lurk_n_post_2000]

Data will work fine on the BlackBerry 10 device with the old BES plan. If you want to get your work email on the device, you may be able to use active sync, but if your IT people are using AirWatch, it's likely that active sync access to your email is disabled.

Beware that unless your corporate IT Department sets up a BES10 server, you will not be able to enterprise activate a BB10 phone. You'll either have to convince them to set up a BES10 server (I think the licensing is free but they'll have to go through a process with BlackBerry), or just buy a BB7 device for work access.


Posted via CB10

[zavar]

My company just recently switched over to android and iphone devices, and are using AirWatch for device management (don't get me started!). We used Lotus Notes for email, calendar and contacts. Mobile devices are tied in to our system using IBM Traveler. My understanding is that AirWatch is a Mobile Device Management solution (for managing the devices, providing easy setup "activation", pushing apps and setting any restrictions), it is separate from the corporate messaging system. In my case, the only native functionality that I lost by continuing to use my Blackberry (since they shut-down the BES 10 server), was that our corporate Instant Messaging System (IBM Sametime) does not work with the native blackberry client (as it requires the BES 10 server for secured communications), however with OS 10.2.1.1925 I'm able to use the android version of this app and it works fine.

You won't be able to complete a "corporate activation" using AirWatch, but the activation more or less means that it sets up your device for you and applies any IT restrictions that the company may be enforcing. As long as your email/calendar/contact solution is using ActiveSync you should be able to setup your Blackberry 10 device manually, as the other android and iphone devices would also need to be using ActiveSync (or imap/pop if email only). Only issue I would see is if your company has implemented a "device restriction", which wouldn't let none android/iphone devices "talk" with your messaging system.

[bjpearce]

Thanks for the answers! In regards to using ActiveSync on a BB 10, it's not an option for me as it's been locked down to only iPhone and Android devices running AirWatch. I'll have run my corporate email on my iPad.

[zavar]

That really stinks. Too bad we can't "fake" what our device reports itself as. Hopefully our IT departments will wisen up and see the ease and benefits of using a BlackBerry device in the enterprise.