1. Raestloz's Avatar
    A few days ago, I ran into someone in another forum, who said that with a reduced "economy" data plan, he can't use Wi-Fi

    So I call bull****, googled around, checked manuals, and found this in my smartphone manual:

    If you are in a Wi-Fi� coverage area and your wireless service plan supports it
    What. The. ...?

    Seriously?

    I mean, Wi-Fi network is not even a carrier's network. A laptop with no connection whatsoever to a mobile network can go Wi-Fi, so why can't I use Wi-Fi without my carrier's consent?

    What is the reason behind this? Security? Is it to prevent BES-reliant workers from going Wi-Fi all day?

    It's not like you'll use your BlackBerry to browse the internet if you have a laptop with you
    03-12-11 05:04 AM
  2. Nute426's Avatar
    That does seem odd. I've used wifi enabled bbwithout even having a sim card in. I would try pulling the sim and trying to connect to wifi without it. Maybe once the network is saved it will be ok. Unless the carrier issued device is crippled in some way, then maybe another carrier's os?

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    03-12-11 05:59 AM
  3. howarmat's Avatar
    pretty sure this would only apply for a phone tied to BES
    03-12-11 06:00 AM
  4. Motorcycle Mama's Avatar
    WiFi on a BlackBerry device is controlled by Service Books.

    If your carrier pushes the WiFi Service Books to the device, then you can access WiFi. If not, then you can't.

    That's what it means.

    Typically, you need a BlackBerry Data Plan in order to get the WiFi Service Books.
    03-12-11 06:42 AM
  5. BoldtotheMax's Avatar
    People use BB wifi enabled devices all the time with no data....has to be due to it being tied to BES.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    03-12-11 06:54 AM
  6. Raestloz's Avatar
    Well, no, not exactly. Here in Indonesia we're pretty loose in terms of "carrier". You can change carriers like you change underwear, literally. Even most people who use BlackBerry in professional environment are not tied to BES at all

    His particular carrier imposed the "no Wi-Fi" restriction for "economy" dataplan. You need regular dataplan to make use of Wi-Fi at all. He actually tested it

    If your carrier pushes the WiFi Service Books to the device, then you can access WiFi. If not, then you can't.
    This seems to be the scenario. If i choose a dataplan with WiFi service books, and then change to one that doesn't issue one, will my service book disappear?
    03-12-11 07:22 AM
  7. Rohnhald's Avatar
    I have a wondered; when I try to download the service book it open with damaged or unsupported error message. I don�t know about this problem if you have any recommendation or idea please share with me.
    03-12-11 08:14 AM
  8. cavingjan's Avatar
    You need to have the service book for WiFi to use WiFi. Most BB's have this service book already so you are fine. But a carrier can pull that service book or it can be deleted by the user.
    03-13-11 11:18 AM
  9. Pete6's Avatar
    This is a simple question with a simple answer.

    You bought your phone, subsidized, from a carrier. You paid something like half the full retail price for it.

    Your carrier would now like to recoup the rest of the cost of the phone by selling you a BlackBerry Data Plan. You cannot blame them for that. What would you do if you were selling half price phones inorder to sell talk minutes and data megabytes?

    The Carrier sends out Service Books that enable various functions on your phone and network services. The one thing they nearly all disable is to allow WiFi without a dataplan.

    Using WiFi with a dataplan is good for the carrier. Using it without a dataplan would be a financial disaster for carriers. Again, what would you do if you were a carrier?

    Carriers are in it for the money. Do not expect favors from them.
    03-13-11 11:24 AM
  10. JRSCCivic98's Avatar
    The other aspect of this is Carrier owned WIFI Hotspots. AT&T and T-Mobile have WIFI Hotspots that are "pay for". If your phone is with this same carrier, usually those charges don't apply to you should you choose to connect to that Hotspot.
    03-13-11 11:16 PM
  11. Culex316's Avatar
    Then how come I can browse the web over Wi-Fi on My Bold (running 6.0) whose OS I had just installed? (with no service books or anything)

    I can understand not having BIS access, but the guy should still be able to at least access TCP/IP, right?
    03-13-11 11:31 PM
  12. Laura Knotek's Avatar
    Then how come I can browse the web over Wi-Fi on My Bold (running 6.0) whose OS I had just installed? (with no service books or anything)

    I can understand not having BIS access, but the guy should still be able to at least access TCP/IP, right?
    When you install the OS and turn on the mobile network the device is registered to BIS. You get the service books. You probably noticed that you got a registration email for each email address that you have in BIS.
    03-14-11 12:02 AM
  13. jbeachy's Avatar
    @Culex - Go to Options > Advanced > Service Book (that's OS5 - I don't have OS6 so your menus may be different). You will see that you have many service books - you pretty have one for every BlackBerry function. They are pushed when you register the device on the carrier's network. Can't live without 'em :-)

    Posted from my BlackBerry using BerryBlab
    03-14-11 08:36 AM
  14. Raestloz's Avatar
    This is a simple question with a simple answer.

    You bought your phone, subsidized, from a carrier. You paid something like half the full retail price for it.

    Your carrier would now like to recoup the rest of the cost of the phone by selling you a BlackBerry Data Plan. You cannot blame them for that. What would you do if you were selling half price phones inorder to sell talk minutes and data megabytes?

    The Carrier sends out Service Books that enable various functions on your phone and network services. The one thing they nearly all disable is to allow WiFi without a dataplan.

    Using WiFi with a dataplan is good for the carrier. Using it without a dataplan would be a financial disaster for carriers. Again, what would you do if you were a carrier?

    Carriers are in it for the money. Do not expect favors from them.
    Well, in America and other foreign countries maybe, but here in Indonesia it's possible to switch carriers easily (you can switch carriers as easily as switching your clothing, or swearing), so I don't think they subsidized the phones. There are also "authorized dealers" selling clean BlackBerries without anything to do with a carrier at all (the phone and dataplan are sold separately), and the price of "clean" and "carrier-issued" phones are roughly the same

    Business-side, it generates money, but I thought I only have to pay only for their bandwidth, not for some random ISP's bandwidth (Wi-Fi is provided by ISPs, right? Or is it?)

    They are practically capitalizing on someone else's bandwidth! (Well, except if they also act as Wi-Fi ISPs, at which point I'll give up and accept that America is truly different from Indonesia)
    03-14-11 08:55 AM
  15. T�nis's Avatar
    You bought your phone, subsidized, from a carrier. You paid something like half the full retail price for it.

    Your carrier would now like to recoup the rest of the cost of the phone. byselling you a BlackBerry Data Plan ...
    I suppose this would mean the phone really isn't half price if the carrier is, in addition to profiting from calls and data, recouping the cost of the phone itself by building it in to its service fees.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    03-14-11 10:03 AM
  16. Pete6's Avatar
    I suppose this would mean the phone really isn't half price if the carrier is, in addition to profiting from calls and data, recouping the cost of the phone itself by building it in to its service fees.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    Hard to tell. Subsidized phones seems to be about half price when compared to a straight buy out.

    I ran some numbers and it seemed that buying a subsidized phone on a 24 month contract was about 20% cheaper than buying a full price phone and then getting a SIM only contract.

    I still went for the full price phone because the minutes+data contract was far more flexible. I can change it or cancel at the end of any month. I also get an unlocked phone.
    03-14-11 10:22 AM
  17. Raestloz's Avatar
    Just a quick question: did RIM thought up about this "Carrier-permitted-only-WiFi" design by themselves or did the carriers collectively said "It'd nice if you can do something for us"
    03-15-11 12:05 PM
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