[Foreverup]

Since Open Letters are pretty big these days, I'd like to leave a comment with one of my own. ...
"Last week at the launch party of the new PlayBook in New York City, RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that the "bridging" app for the PlayBook was a big differentiator for the Playbook over either the iPad or other Android tablets that are sold through carriers, because the "bridge" app allows BlackBerry users to get 3G data access on their tablets without paying an additional fee."

During that announcement, the BRIDGE was heavily promoted as a feature for the PLAYBOOK that DID NOT require any additional "tethering fee".

Ever since the initial release, myself and the rest of AT&T customers were shocked and extremely upset when we found that we were on the only cellular carrier IN THE WORLD where BRIDGE was not available. *Even after BRIDGE was heavily stressed during the keynote at Blackberry World AS A NATIVE BUILT-IN FEATURE where everyone in attendance got a free Playbook, those who were on AT&T were left out in the cold. *I lost count of how many people were going up to the help desk asking how to install BRIDGE only to learn they couldn't because they were on AT&T.

"Pair your BlackBerry� PlayBook� tablet with a BlackBerry� smartphone to get even more features.

That is what we were promised by RIM, but never got, till today.

For 2 months we couldn't check our email on the Playbook.

For 2 months we couldn't access our Tasks and Notes.

For 2 months there was no Blackberry Messenger.

Until today, we were told:"AT&T is working with RIM to make the BlackBerry Bridge app available for AT&T customers. We have just received the app for testing and before it's made available to AT&T customers we want to ensure it delivers a quality experience for our customers."

Why did it take over 2 months for JUST AT&T PLAYBOOK users to be able to get the "features" we were promised at launch, and everyone else in the entire world except us got?
Since Blackberry World, myself and my fellow Blackberry Playbook owners long suspected that the hold up with AT&T offering BRIDGE was because they wanted to find a way to charge for it. Now we have undeniable proof we were right.

The fact that AT&T is the only carrier in the entire world charging a tethering fee for a NATIVE BUILT-IN feature that RIM proudly displays on their website is completely and utterly unacceptable.
It's no wonder there was an open letter to the higher-ups at RIM earlier this week. *This is the perfect example of RIM executives being out of touch with their users and bending to the will of the carriers. *In this particular case, it is AT&T who, once again, wants to nickel and dime us to death by trying to squeeze every last cent they can out of us.**

I urge RIM to take the first steps to show the writer of that original open letter this week wrong. *Tell AT&T to stick it and that their users can use the BRIDGE browser without any additional fees. *At a time when RIM is losing marketshare to Apple and Android, Blackberry users could use act of good faith right about now and this would be the perfect chance to give it to us.

Finally, since I hate to leave on a negative note, I realize that this blog post, along with any response I might get will be done at the behest of upper management. *I had the good fortune of meeting with #teamblackberry when I was invited to Blackberry World in May. *They are incredibly nice and friendly people who are extremely enthusiastic and passionate about Blackberry, of which they show their love through their job. *I harbor no ill-will towards them, nor other RIM employees as I recognize this was a decision made at much higher levels.

I love my Blackberry and my Playbook. *I love my Playbook so much that I started the Blackberry Playbook Application Initiative to show companies and developers the demand for their apps. *Now, everyday, I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle trying to get my friends to stay with their Blackberries. *In the past year alone, at least 3 of my friends of abandoned their Blackberry and switched to Android. *This superfan is finding it harder and harder to defend RIM, but I keep trying.

This open letter is not anonymous. *#TeamBlackberry, you know where to find me and how to reach out to me.

Please RIM, don't let your AT&T users down.
Marc K."Staying in Sync"http://stayinginsync.infoTwitter:*stayinginsync

I know mark posts here if you see this great post

[kb5zht]

and i still encourage all bb users to bail from that crapweasel carrier.

the torch isnt worth it.

breaking your contract is cheaper than paying $480 for two years of tethering.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Spencerdl]

Makes me wonder how much customer friendly AT&t really is, if not for the "iphone" where would they be......things that make you go "hummmmm"

[Foreverup]

Makes me wonder how much customer friendly AT&t really is, if not for the "iphone" where would they be......things that make you go "hummmmm"

oh trust me come tuesday I'm shopping my companies cell phone plan.

[FranzJoseph]

Very well said, what are the chances that RIM will see this post?

[SmakBerry]

This would be enough to make me leave a company as well, especially since AT&T IS the only carrier charging for this. Many think that other carriers will jump on the bandwagon and charge as well, all I can say is I hope they are wrong. Hopefully AT&T will see the damaging affects of this and change their view on it the subject.
I can't say I blame all those impacted by the decision for being angry.

[Foreverup]

Very well said, what are the chances that RIM will see this post?

pretty good it is on there official blog.

[Kerms]

If the Bridge browser actually mirrored the BB screen and not an actually full fledge web browser like the standard browser on the PB, sort of like running an iphone app on the ipad or a webos phone app on the TouchPad, they show up in a window about the size of the the phone although they can be expanded to fill more of the screen they aren't as crisp I doubt AT&T would have said anything.

AT&T is the only one that's going to charge for it now. Look for Verizon to follow. AT&T is looking down the road first the PB, the Google will have the bridge, then Apple, Microsoft so they are basicly nipping it in the bud.

RIM partners with AT&T to sell their devices to have them on AT&T network. RIM really should have been in talks with AT&T about the bridge, not just AT&T but all carriers.

Those who own their own BB will probably be able to continue their work around. That's what I would do until I got a notice if I ever got one.

Those who use a work BB probably just saw their PB go down in flames if their IT decides they don't want to pay the extra fee. To my knowledge no BB at the moment is able to create a wifi hotspot. I think they may look at other devices that are capable of doing so. If you're going to have to spend extra you may as well pay it on a phone that can serve up internet access to the table and laptop or even other phones if need be.

[shootsscores]

This is really disappointing. I was thinking of switching to ATT as it is a union shop. I want to support folks who have a contract and hopefully make a decent wage so that they can inject it into this stalled economy. Disappointing to see the bean counters rear their ugly heads once again.

Bean counters are the bane of society. I'm just barely old enough to have visited Vegas before those blood suckers got their hands on things and ruined the fun. Trust me, Vegas was a lot more fun then than now. Now it's Disneyland (Disney have become chislers as well) for drunks. It used to be just plain fun.

[grover5]

I really hate AT&T. It would be great if this led to a loss in customers for them.

[BSFA2008]

tldr.

Be upset with ATT not BB. Be less of a cry baby.

[Foreverup]

tldr.

Be upset with ATT not BB. Be less of a cry baby.

it is amazing you don't get we are upset with att and on top of that we are upset with rim. their ceos clearly promised something that they could not deliver. and when they can't they slink back into the shadows saying i don't know. I could post numerous articles from both mike and jim saying no problem it's free.


again rim promised something they could not deliver and sold an extra 5,000 playbooks off that lie

[wiredr]

hi there crackberry abusers and users
i am posting from my playbook in auckland new zealand
i had to comment on the big con at&t are playing on you users
firstly to use the bridge you need a blackberry with a data plan
secondly emails on the playbook can only be read if a there is a bridge connection
this means that as rim have said all along no data is stored on the playbook so what this means is that data on a bb is no different than what is read on the pb so how does at&t get away with charging you twice for the same data . if i delete an email on my torch then it is also not on my play book .
the bridge is not a tether it is a blue tooth connection to a bb phone
so how does at&t know the difference between data to the phone and data being read on a playbook answer they cant
you guys are being well and truly screwed by at&t
my advice change carriers .

[Angelo_Campher]

hi there crackberry abusers and users
i am posting from my playbook in auckland new zealand
i had to comment on the big con at&t are playing on you users
firstly to use the bridge you need a blackberry with a data plan
secondly emails on the playbook can only be read if a there is a bridge connection
this means that as rim have said all along no data is stored on the playbook so what this means is that data on a bb is no different than what is read on the pb so how does at&t get away with charging you twice for the same data . if i delete an email on my torch then it is also not on my play book .
the bridge is not a tether it is a blue tooth connection to a bb phone
so how does at&t know the difference between data to the phone and data being read on a playbook answer they cant
you guys are being well and truly screwed by at&t
my advice change carriers .

I don't think they can tell the difference but the data usage will definitely be higher. I'm sure the data sent and received over the bridge browser is still compressed as images on a web page are much crappier when browsing with the bridge as opposed to the normal browser.

If AT&T are going to charge for this then the consumers should demand it run at tethering speed and images load as per the native browser.

[papped]

I don't think they can tell the difference but the data usage will definitely be higher. I'm sure the data sent and received over the bridge browser is still compressed as images on a web page are much crappier when browsing with the bridge as opposed to the normal browser.

If AT&T are going to charge for this then the consumers should demand it run at tethering speed and images load as per the native browser.

It wouldn't necessarily be higher. You could hit the same numbers just doing streaming on pandora on the phone pretty easily.

Also of course its compressed.the data still goes through bis on the phone

[togardergrosse]

sorry about the double post .
so if i were to run a non at&t os on my phone and i installed the bridge app on said phone how are at&t going to know that i have a play book ?

Not just double post bud, but LOTS
If you are on AT&T network, they will pretty much figured it out..
But some users posted that they able to bypass that as long they use the Bridge apps that is available OTA and not downloaded from the App World.
But since you're on Telecom NZ which is in New Zealand, I think you are safe... for now..

[psiclne]

Im upset also, but dang, some of you are taking this to a whole new level.
"Bitter, Table for 1"?

[Bla1ze]

again rim promised something they could not deliver and sold an extra 5,000 playbooks off that lie

6,000 + and they never sold em -- they gave em away. But I digress....

[blackjack93117]

"The fact that AT&T is the only carrier in the entire world charging a tethering fee for a NATIVE BUILT-IN feature that RIM proudly displays on their website is completely and utterly unacceptable."

Yes its unacceptable that they are the only ones, NOW, but rather than ATT backing down I fear they only opened the door for other carriers to follow suit - that way they will no longer be the ONLY one, just the FIRST one..

After that, reviling ATT or quitting will not do a thing. They will have the consensus of the industry , which is probably what they are banking on. I think they weighed this carefully.. All carriers suck, given a chance to suck, they will. ATT has given them that chance.

Heck they probably called each other on the phone and said
"hey let's all suck", it was just a matter of who was going to suck first. ATT had a head start by blocking Bridge.

.

[kbz1960]

"The fact that AT&T is the only carrier in the entire world charging a tethering fee for a NATIVE BUILT-IN feature that RIM proudly displays on their website is completely and utterly unacceptable."

Yes its unacceptable that they are the only ones, NOW, but rather than ATT backing down I fear they only opened the door for other carriers to follow suit - that way they will no longer be the ONLY one, just the FIRST one..

After that, reviling ATT or quitting will not do a thing. They will have the consensus of the industry , which is probably what they are banking on. I think they weighed this carefully.. All carriers suck, given a chance to suck, they will.

.

I'm afraid you're right my friend. Has Tether finished their app for the playbook yet?

As papped said a person could stream crap for a couple months to get their usage up so it looks normal and then continue on.

[kbz1960]

Oh foreverup, I was thinking about your other post in another thread (not remembering which) where are seeking a refund from RIM or where you bought it.

In a way you are making it sound like the playbook is more useless than any other wifi tab since the bridge doesn't work or was it that you wouldn't have bought any other wifi tab at all and the only reason you did was because of the bridge?

@Daps I still don't understand why carriers are even selling a wifi tab if they want to make their piece of pie off of it they should only be selling 3g or 4g ones.

[blackjack93117]

The thing that gets me the most is that I rarely use 3G, but when I need it, I need it and when I do the bandwidth is very low - I don't watch youtube on it when I'm out of the office or home...most of the time I'm in range of wifi - but sure is nice when you're on the road and you need to use Poynt or something or google maps so I have to pay a tethering fee or get another data plan just for that????

Suckers!

This is the whole reason I didn't bother waiting for 4g or LTE, because THEN I would need an additional data plan.
This is complete bait and switch - a lot of buy decisions were based on what was told us regarding free bridging to 3G.

One of these lawyers in here should help us with the class action lawsuit. native email in two months was not a promise they never said it was promised, only scheduled. THIS however came right out of the CEO's lips, verbatim!


.

.

[kbz1960]

I tether my laptop every day thru the week for hours and the most data I've used is 1.2gb. Mind you I don't stream, download or watch videos. Mainly surfing, chat rooms and IM.

[blackjack93117]

I tether my laptop every day thru the week for hours and the most data I've used is 1.2gb. Mind you I don't stream, download or watch videos. Mainly surfing, chat rooms and IM.

I think that could be said of most of us - I do use 3G on my phone for streaming audio to my earphones, when I'm out... but that has nothing to do with Playbook - this whole thing is a screwjob.

[kbz1960]

Well if tether gets their app out for it, it would be no different than what I do with my laptop now.