[makuwel]

I am have bridged for the fisrt time. All my icons are showing up such as contacts, messeges etc all in my ALL tab screen. There is a bridge browser icon but it has an exclamation point and when i enter that icon it says it needs to check for therering plan and fees.
The blackberry bridge TAB at the top is empty!!??

I have unlimited ATT data plan and dont wanna mess it up.

I have restarted bridge and rebooted playbook...what should i do?

[Chaddface]

Just replied in your other thread.

[dfaris]

Delete the Bridge app from your phone and download the OTA one you see as a sticky in this form. The Bridge you get from App world is crippled because AT&T wants to charge you twice for the same data just because you are viewing it on a different device. The OTA app you download from here will give you the bridge browser and you wont have to pay for therering.

Dump AT&T as soon as you can before it gets worse.

[chefey]

what is an ota browser? and where is the link for it? also, do i have to get the "tethering plan" from att in order to use the hridge browser? its 45 bucks! i live in vermont and the only carrier in my town that that gets service is crappy att!

[Mercury]

the OTA browser is the browser on your blackberry. And as stated, download the bridge from the sticky at the top of this forum and it will bypass the tethering fee apparently.

[Chaddface]

what is an ota browser? and where is the link for it? also, do i have to get the "tethering plan" from att in order to use the hridge browser? its 45 bucks! i live in vermont and the only carrier in my town that that gets service is crappy att!

The OTA(over the air) bridge is at the top of the forum. It's a sticky. If you install that bridge you don't need to tether through at$t. The bridge app on app world will not let you use the bridge browser if you have at$t. Delete any version already on your phone and install the one on this forum.

[dfaris]

Also if you are using a phone with OS 7 there is a link in these forms to download that bridge.

[dfaris]

what is an ota browser? and where is the link for it? also, do i have to get the "tethering plan" from att in order to use the hridge browser? its 45 bucks! i live in vermont and the only carrier in my town that that gets service is crappy att!

Thats the point, You will not have to buy the tethering plan. The bridge browser will let you browse using your already paid for phones data plan. The phone does not tether and you wont get tethering speed. The date your phone downloads is just being displayed in the playbook browser.

[badger906]

im worried now, i didnt get such a warning with mine! and have been browsing a fair bit over bridge!

unless its restricted to AT&T and not to Uk vodafone..

[Chaddface]

Just att at the moment

[dfaris]

Its only AT&T trying to pull a dirt bag move like this. Everyone else seems to know charging two times for the same thing is bad for business.

[Chaddface]

Its only AT&T trying to pull a dirt bag move like this. Everyone else seems to know charging two times for the same thing is bad for business.

The bridge browser uses data at a much faster rate then the phone ever could. Same reason most carriers charge for tethering.

[chasvs]

The bridge browser uses data at a much faster rate then the phone ever could. Same reason most carriers charge for tethering.

You're not tethering when you use the Bridge Browser. All you are doing is viewing the data from your phone's browser on a difference monitor. It's significantly different when you Tether your PB to the data flow of your BB.

[Chaddface]

You're not tethering when you use the Bridge Browser. All you are doing is viewing the data from your phone's browser on a difference monitor. It's significantly different when you Tether your PB to the data flow of your BB.

You are not using your phones browser. You are using the PB browser which is capable of doing things that the phone can't do. I understand the tether/bridge.

[dfaris]

You are not using your phones browser. You are using the PB browser which is capable of doing things that the phone can't do. I understand the tether/bridge.

Your understanding of bridge/tethering is flawed. I can load two or 3 different browsers on my phone that are more capable then the BB browser that came with my phone, is that tethering?

All the bridge browser is doing is taking the data that the phone downloads and the phone requests and displaying it on the playbook. The phone downloads the data not the playbook and that is not tethering. The speeds are only as fast as the phones data plan because you already pay for the data plan. Tethering is when the playbook does the downloading and the requesting from the servers and the phone acts like a modem, this is not the case with the bridge.

[Chaddface]

I understand the difference. The fact is that the bridge browser can consume data faster then the phone browser. What I was trying to say is the same reason carriers charge for tethering is the same reason att wants to charge for bridge browser. Carriers are not only concerned about the amount of data you use but also the speed at which you use it.

[dfaris]

I understand the difference. The fact is that the bridge browser can consume data faster then the phone browser. What I was trying to say is the same reason carriers charge for tethering is the same reason att wants to charge for bridge browser. Carriers are not only concerned about the amount of data you use but also the speed at which you use it.

Ah see this is where you are not correct. When using the Bridge Browser the Playbook is not loading web pages any faster then if you were just using your phone. If you had a tethering plan then the Playbook would be much much faster.

Try it yourself, clear the phones history then load a page on your phone try google.com and time how long it takes. Then clear the history again and load it using the bridge browser it will take about the same if not longer to load in the Playbook bridge browser.

The phone is not in tether mode and not acting like a modem. All the phone is doing is pushing the data it downloads to the Playbook. If this was tethering and I was paying for it I would be pissed at how slow the tethering is. Real tethering is much much faster that is why you have to pay for it.

AT&T and all the other carriers have a right to charge for tethering because you are in effect buying another internet connection so you can have better speeds. Bridge browsing is not even close to tethering or using another data stream like tethering does. This is nothing but greed from AT&T that is basically charging you two times for the same data that you already pay for. if it was any more then that all the other carriers would be charging also. The fact that AT&T is the only carrier charging should tell something.

[Chaddface]

Forget google.Try loading the full version of this site on your phone and then on the bridge browser. Just did on bridge browser then I went to this thread typed my reply. Phone is still loading

[FF22]

The bridge browser uses data at a much faster rate then the phone ever could. Same reason most carriers charge for tethering.

I do not believe it uses data faster or more under "normal" circumstances. What may be true is that having access to the web on a larger screen makes it more tempting to use the PHONE's browsing data more to browse.

[badger906]

surley it will use more data loading websites that contain flash? or do sites containing flash not work on bridge browser?

[dfaris]

Forget google.Try loading the full version of this site on your phone and then on the bridge browser. Just did on bridge browser then I went to this thread typed my reply. Phone is still loading

Really you must be the only person that loads Crackberry fine. This has to be the slowest site to load on the playbook. Plus you should load a site that does not load a mobile site when you load it on the phone thats why I said google.com.

[dfaris]

surley it will use more data loading websites that contain flash? or do sites containing flash not work on bridge browser?

Its not how much data it loads its how it gets the data and Bridge browsing gets its data from the phone not from internet servers like tethering would do.

[badger906]

but then what chaddface was saying is correct. it is consuming data faster. he wasnt implying it was a faster connection, just that it will go through any data allowances faster.
his exact words "The fact is that the bridge browser can consume data faster then the phone browser"

[Chaddface]

Forget tethering. What I'm saying is the bridge browser use data faster. Has nothing to do with tethering. The full site on bridge loads 2 or 3 times faster with flas on then the phone does. On the front page of 9! Click exit mobile view and see how long it takes. Then try it on bridge browser with everything turned on.

[dfaris]

but then what chaddface was saying is correct. it is consuming data faster. he wasnt implying it was a faster connection, just that it will go through any data allowances faster.
his exact words "The fact is that the bridge browser can consume data faster then the phone browser"

I never said it was faster I said how much is not the question. He is saying it gets the data faster. Just because I get 1 meg of data does not mean I got the 1 meg faster.