[timmy t]

Since the carriers seem to be pressuring RIM to lower its share of the fees they charge to use BIS and therefore BBM, is it possible that RIM is coming up with a way to use BBM without signing up with the carriers?
I understand that BBM will work with BB10 and the Playbook and the non-LTE Playbook doesn't use carriers.
Has RIM designed a way to allow us to use BBM exclusive of the carriers via a monthly charge to our credit cards or something like that?

This may not make technical sense since I am not an expert in how it would work but they have to somehow figure out how to charge people who are not using a carrier like non-LTE Playbooks users.

[xandermac]

That's a double edges sword. RIM count on revenue from service from the carriers. With the switch to activesync the carriers have less incentive to want to pay when activesync costs nothing on an iPhone or Android.

So lets assume RIM choose to make up this revenue shortfall by direct billing. First, I don't see the carrier lowering your bill. My Bill is $60 with or without BIS, so i'd then be looking at a separate charge from RIM for what? $5-$10 per month? or an additional $120-$240 over 2 years for the privilege of using their servers and BBM? Do you think many customers would tolerate that? Do you think new customers would flock to the BB knowing there will be an additional monthly fee that doesn't exist if they chose an Android or iPhone?

[BlackBerry Guy]

You can't really bypass the carriers because BIS or not, they control all the pipes that carry the data.

You could go wifi only I suppose, but then you won't have a constant connection.

[timmy t]

Well, obviously they can avoid it like Apple and Android users by not using BBM.

And I think your package has BIS included, not free, so it should be lower if you say you don't want it.
At least that is how it is in the prepaid world.

[timmy t]

I would think once you get onto the internet, you can go whereever you want and that place you want to go could be into a web accessable BIS entry point.
I'm not that technical but why couldn't RIM say people who have paid $5/month can access their BIS through the internet using the carriers internet infrastructure, after all, how would wi-fi only Playbooks access them?

[mikeo007]

Well, obviously they can avoid it like Apple and Android users by not using BBM.

And I think your package has BIS included, not free, so it should be lower if you say you don't want it.
At least that is how it is in the prepaid world.

Can't speak for other countries, but in Canada and the USA, there is no separate charge for BIS. It is all rolled into the plan. If you have a 1gb data plan and want to switch it to a 1gb Blackberry plan, the cost would remain the same. So there wouldn't be any reduction in price if you chose not to use BIS.

[timmy t]

I think Virgin Mobile has a different pricing policy. That is why I didn't get it.