[rottonj]

I have used a bb phone for work or play for the past 10 years and it works well for my needs. I have yet to buy the playbook for financials reasons yet but see the purchase happening in the future. The bridge feature seems too good to be true by using the phone as an internet access with no additional charges. I have searched and found some feel it to be slow connection but that isnt all that bad for me. My question is why is this exclusive to blackberry. Why are other phone/tablet combinations(samsung?) not doing the same thing? Are they? I have not found anything reasearching this not counting hotspot or other add on charges. Sorry if this has been covered before I did search but there are tons of posts and I didnt find my answer. Thanks in advance, love this site.

[Thunderbuck]

It's exclusive to BlackBerry because RIM has its own communication infrastructure outside of the Internet at large, namely the Blackberry Internet Service (or BIS, as it's commonly referred to here).

When you browse the web on a Blackberry phone, the traffic all goes through RIM's network, and so it doesn't count against your carrier's data plan. Bridge Browser on the Playbook essentially uses the phone to pull data through the BIS.

Yes, it is slow, but it can be a lifesaver when you absolutely NEED the web.

[rottonj]

Wow fast answer, thank you. I had purchased the tether app for my phone last year when it was on sale for half price but have only used it a few times. The playbook seems really great and I look forward to getting one at some point. Once I do this forum will be key I'm sure. Thanks again

[rotorwrench]

We've not found the bridge connection to be slow. Not as fast as our facility network but definitely not slow. It's just a little slower than our standalone phone data speeds, but keep in mind the limiting factor is the BT connection. More speed is always better, but right now it's more than adequate, especially since it gives us data access in the field when wifi is nowhere to be had; and no extra fees

[sleepngbear]

The bridge really isn't bad, especially with OS7 phones.

As for whether or not it's too good to be true, it is too good to be at&t ... they don't allow bridge browsing without a tethering plan. But the full bridge app can be gotten that lets you do it anyway no matter what carrier you're on.
Your BlackBerry Home Page

Rroyy rocks.

[rotorwrench]

It's exclusive to BlackBerry because RIM has its own communication infrastructure outside of the Internet at large, namely the Blackberry Internet Service (or BIS, as it's commonly referred to here).

When you browse the web on a Blackberry phone, the traffic all goes through RIM's network, and so it doesn't count against your carrier's data plan. Bridge Browser on the Playbook essentially uses the phone to pull data through the BIS.

Yes, it is slow, but it can be a lifesaver when you absolutely NEED the web.

I wish that were true in the states as well, but our data use on BB phones IS counted against our data plan, at least with Verizon. It didn't used to, so if you bought a BB phone, you automatically had to purchase an unlimited plan because they had no way to track data. Now they do. No more unlimited with Verizon either. I'm grandfathered in. BUT it is more cost effective with a BB phone due to BIS and BES data compression, which equates to less data debits than other phones for equal data use.

[Bluemoonjules]

Yes, rotorwrench is right, use of Bridge does use your data plan allowance whilst you are not using WiFi.

[cletis]

It's exclusive to BlackBerry because RIM has its own communication infrastructure outside of the Internet at large, namely the Blackberry Internet Service (or BIS, as it's commonly referred to here).

When you browse the web on a Blackberry phone, the traffic all goes through RIM's network, and so it doesn't count against your carrier's data plan. Bridge Browser on the Playbook essentially uses the phone to pull data through the BIS.

Yes, it is slow, but it can be a lifesaver when you absolutely NEED the web.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here, but it sounds as if you're suggesting that RIM has the ability to route data to and from your phone without going through your carrier's network, which is of course not the case -- because I think we all would have heard about RIM setting up a worldwide network of cell towers. All cell traffic (be it HTTP, POP, IMAP, IM, SMS, MMS, or even PIN) routes to and from your phone over your carrier's network, and this is the way it always has been.

Regular HTTP(S), SMS and MMS traffic routes to and from your phone over your carrier's network just as it does on any other phone, and never touches RIM's servers in any way. Where RIM's servers come into play is with email, PIN, and BBM messages. PIN and BBM go straight to/from RIM servers, since RIM hosts those services. The email accounts you set up on your BB (or native POP/IMAP accounts on the PB) are set up as BIS accounts on RIM's BIS servers, which then poll your mail server every 15 minutes to see if there's new mail waiting. When there is, RIM pushes it to your phone. The logic here is that it's better than having a native POP client on the phone performing the polling because you're not being charged by your carrier for the packets sent back and forth for that polling conversation.

So the reason that your carrier has to provision your phone with BIS services is so RIM knows which phone is yours when it needs to find you to push data to you.

Everything that I wrote about BIS applies to BES as well, except that the polling interval is much shorter; 20 seconds by default on my Lotus Domino server.

I wish that were true in the states as well, but our data use on BB phones IS counted against our data plan, at least with Verizon. It didn't used to, so if you bought a BB phone, you automatically had to purchase an unlimited plan because they had no way to track data. Now they do. No more unlimited with Verizon either. I'm grandfathered in. BUT it is more cost effective with a BB phone due to BIS and BES data compression, which equates to less data debits than other phones for equal data use.

Verizon used to offer unlimited data plans not because they couldn't meter your data packets, but because that was what all US carriers were doing at the time, and they were simply being competitive in the market. But I share your appreciation for being grandfathered in to an unlimited Verizon data plan, and I expect that I may keep my current BB for a long time just so that I don't have to sign a new, data-capped contract in order to get a subsidized BB10 phone.

[Thunderbuck]

Yes, BB traffic has to travel over at least a part of the carriers' networks, but I thought BIS took browser traffic as well, and that was why Bridge Browser got around data plans.

[SnoozerBold]

I think that what he is trying to say is that yes bridge does use your phones data and it's counted against your monthly plan. However there is no extra monthly charges for tethering like there is with other phones and tablets or laptops.
How RIM gets away with this with carriers I have no clue.