E-mail & web access

Hi

I am a newbie on the Crackberry forum and I must say I am impressed with the community.

I am considering buying a Blackberry, an 8820 to be specific, but have one concern about e-mail and web access. I do not intend signing up for my carriers BIS or data plans, I pay for data on my current phone (GPRS/EDGE) as I use it. Will I be able to do the same with the BB?
I know I won't have push e-mail but I'm OK with that. In all the documentation and how-to's I only see mention of BIS and BES, is it possible to set up e-mail accounts that do not use these services? How do I do that? I'd really appreciate it if somebody can help me out or point me to a resource where I can read more about it.

This is the last hurdle between me and the BB, I am really looking forward to getting one, hopefully it can be done.

Cobus

If you want the Blackberry you are going to need a BlackBerry Data plan (BIS or BES). (If you want to surf the web and get email that is. The data plan you are using now is different then the data plan you need for a BlackBerry)

I really don't think there is a way around it even though the 8820 has wi-fi, but hey I don't know everything and someone might come along and prove me wrong :)

Originally Posted by cvzyl

Hi
...I do not intend signing up for my carriers BIS or data plans, I pay for data on my current phone (GPRS/EDGE) as I use it. Will I be able to do the same with the BB?
...

Just for clarification, the BIS (or BES) plan will include the data. It will not be in addition to your existing data plan. You drop your old data plan and add BIS.

This really sucks!!!

I have a corporate cellular account so cannot just add the Blackberry service to it, IT policy a pain in the ***. Does this mean I cannot use a Blackberry to retrieve my e-mail and connect to the web?

I have been using an iPhone but really miss a physical keyboard. I could easily add as many e-mail accounts as I like, even an Exchange server. All this without paying additionally for a service.

I'm really bummed

I read about Blackberry Unite on the Blackberry 101 tutorials, would this solve my problem?

Cobus

Unite is just a free sunstitute for BES that still requires BI�

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

As far as I'm aware if you can get the service books onto the BB you can use the stuff without the plan. However the price of data at the per KB prices you will more than likely hit the price of the plan and even exceed it. On average desktop version web pages are 150-250KB each, mobile pages about 50-100KB each, email is at least 2-3KB each. Plus the BB periodically communicates over the data connection (no clue what it does) reason I know this is prior to be putting a data plan on my account I had some casual use data charges and I didn't have service books to use any apps that access data. So at sprints 3 cents per KB one web page visit would cost like $6. So chances are good that if you're going to use data you might as well get the plan.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I know I won't have push e-mail but I'm OK with that. In all the documentation and how-to's I only see mention of BIS and BES, is it possible to set up e-mail accounts that do not use these services? How do I do that? I'd really appreciate it if somebody can help me out or point me to a resource where I can read more about it.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------danieljames

Originally Posted by danieljames

...is it possible to set up e-mail accounts that do not use these services?...

No, you need either BIS or BES to use data with a BlackBerry.