1. joeldf's Avatar
    Wait so BlackBerry 10 may have BIS after all? If so that would be great news for me!

    I was under the impression that there was no BIS on BlackBerry 10, only BES.



    Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk
    It is confusing. I think the problem is that we are now being told that BIS is not "required" anymore. This in spite of the fact that the company formerly known as RIM specifically stated last Oct, I believe, that even though the PlayBook and the Dev Alphas didn't use it, BIS was still needed on the BB10 phones. That seems to have changed somewhat. It may be a matter of how it is used on the new phones. We can't seem to find a straight answer even though it is now out and on some UK carriers.
    02-01-13 10:56 AM
  2. Barljo's Avatar
    I've just checked my providers site (putting aside the OMGGGGGG THEY HAVE IT!!!!) I'm feeling right now.

    The os7 berries show with the BlackBerry BIS bolt on required. The z10 does not - it shows with their standard data bolt-ons as options. I'll check when I go in and grab the z10 for either an in store trial or purchase (we all know which I'll be doing, probably both!) and see what they say about BIS.

    [/sensible post]

    OMGGGGGG THEY HAVE IT.... (and breathe)
    02-01-13 11:13 AM
  3. go1ndr's Avatar
    If you're on an AT&T unlimited plan and using a BlackBerry, you have BIS. AT&T's BlackBerry Data Plan is a BIS data plan. They just don't call it BIS on their system or on your bill, and they don't charge extra for it either - never have (none of the big 4 U.S. carriers have). Look next to your network connection type symbol (the 3G, H+ or 4G depending on the OS version, or the Wi-Fi when connected), if you see that little 4-dot BB logo, you're BIS connected.

    The pop3 accounts are going through and handled by the BIS. The BIS polls your account every 15 minutes. If something is there, it pushes it to your phone over the BIS connection. It will check again in 2 or 3 minutes and push those if something is there again, and check again in another 2 or 3 minutes. If you get a lot of emails, they will seem to be constantly streaming in. If during the following check, there is nothing there, then it goes back to 15 minutes - until something is there again. Other than a BES or BES Express setup, there is no other way to make it work in BBOS 7 and older - you have either BIS or BES, or you don't get any emails at all using the native device email client (I won't go into third party email clients than can use wi-fi like LogicMail). You can set up, or look at the account settings on your phone, or through the AT&T BIS portal on your computer using the web address: https://bis.na.blackberry.com/html?brand=mycingular and using the same login info you use on the phone to get through the email setup.

    My wife and I both have grandfathered unlimited plans, too, left over from when we both got Pearl 8100s back in '07. She switched to the iPhone 3G in '09 keeping the unlimited plan (now on an iPhone 4), and I upgraded to the 9800 in '10 keeping my unlimited BlackBerry plan. Still $30 each.

    How BIS will work (or not work) in BB10 in the U.S. is not yet known, considering none of the big carriers ever passed the BIS fee on to their customers before. Apparently, the BB10 phone can handle pop3 accounts in-device now (the way iOS and Android have done it). That means that the device is now polling the pop3 email server instead of the BIS. That would mean more battery usage, even if just a little more. Whether that polling increases to every few minutes after getting an email still happens, we don't know. No one with a Z10 in the other threads about BIS have tested the pop3 handling - yet. But, the Z10s have BIS connection capability since almost every BB10 screen shot shown in the last few months had the BIS symbol.

    On the positive side, AT&T has let people continue their unlimited data plans even when upgrading to a 4G LTE phone - so it shouldn't be any different for the BB10 phones. It's not as easy when going through a third party dealer online (like through Amazon) or in-person (like at Best-Buy), as they usually only have the currently offered plans available for you (or them) to click through - they can see you have an existing account to allow upgrade pricing, but apparently not what the existing plan is. But, going through the AT&T account site, you will have your existing plan showing, giving you the option to contiue it. That's what my wife did when getting her iPhone 4 just this past summer.
    joeldf, First-thank you for the detailed info on this. We've actually had unlimited data for about 10 years and we didn't switch to BB's until the 9800's came out. We've actually been with AT&T (one form or another) since the early 90's for our cell service and over the years due to customer loyality and being that we are a business, they gave us unlimited data. Yes we started using cells when they were carried with a battery pack on our shoulder-LOL!
    We do not use BIS to my knowledge (no logo as you discribed) as once we got our original 9800's, we just set up our pop3 email accounts like we did with our older Samsung Epics and Palms before that. I've never set up a BB account as we actually didn't want the "push" emails and needed to have them (hundreds a day sometimes) remain on all of our computers/laptops and phones. Push didn't matter as you state, due to the amount of emails that come in, and when there isn't a huge run of emails, it's actually nice to get them every 15mins-lol. On the other hand, if BIS was set up by AT&T when we first got our old 9800s, then I am not aware of it. Since we most likely do not have BIS, and like you and others on here, I read that BIS won't be around with BB10, I'm curious if we'll still be able to operate as we do now, and more importantly, if we will still be able to sync MS Outlook's contacts and calendar with our BB10 like we do with our 9810s? Again-thanks for the detailed info, and BTW, I clicked on the BIS link below, it tood me to a registration page for a BB/AT&T to set up an email account-humm-not doing that-lol.

    PS: just found out from a friend that is a hybrid builder and knows BB inside and out, that th BIS (4 dots) icon comes on automatically when you turn on the wifi--whether or not you have BIS. But the push still will not work if you do not have a BIS account set up. We do not have BIS, and even though the icon is there when I turn on the wifi, there is no push of emails. However if you look at your options, you will see that when the WiFi is turned on, it says BB internet service connection, so it's for the internet I guess.
    Last edited by go1ndr; 02-01-13 at 03:15 PM. Reason: updated
    02-01-13 01:47 PM
  4. Neely2005's Avatar
    I've reserved 1 BlackBerry Z10 & 1 BlackBerry Q10 from Rogers.

    Currently we have a Family Plan with 1 Gig of shared data for 2 BlackBerry Bold 9700's & 1 Feature Phone. We use Wi-Fi at home only.

    Up until now we've never come close to using 1 Gig in a month but that's probably due in large part to BIS.

    Do you think that 1 Gig of shared data will still be enough for 3 phones?


    Sent from my BlackBerry 9700 using Tapatalk
    So it seems like I'm REALLY going to miss the Data Compression of BIS!

    Last month (January Invoice) I used 173.67 MB of Data on my Bold 9700.

    My new Invoice (February Invoice) generated on February 11th and I used 359.91 MB of Data between my Bold 9700 & 7 DAYS on my Z10.

    This could be problematic when my wife switches from her Bold 9700 to a Q10.
    02-15-13 10:34 AM
  5. Neely2005's Avatar
    joeldf, First-thank you for the detailed info on this. We've actually had unlimited data for about 10 years and we didn't switch to BB's until the 9800's came out. We've actually been with AT&T (one form or another) since the early 90's for our cell service and over the years due to customer loyality and being that we are a business, they gave us unlimited data. Yes we started using cells when they were carried with a battery pack on our shoulder-LOL!
    We do not use BIS to my knowledge (no logo as you discribed) as once we got our original 9800's, we just set up our pop3 email accounts like we did with our older Samsung Epics and Palms before that. I've never set up a BB account as we actually didn't want the "push" emails and needed to have them (hundreds a day sometimes) remain on all of our computers/laptops and phones. Push didn't matter as you state, due to the amount of emails that come in, and when there isn't a huge run of emails, it's actually nice to get them every 15mins-lol. On the other hand, if BIS was set up by AT&T when we first got our old 9800s, then I am not aware of it. Since we most likely do not have BIS, and like you and others on here, I read that BIS won't be around with BB10, I'm curious if we'll still be able to operate as we do now, and more importantly, if we will still be able to sync MS Outlook's contacts and calendar with our BB10 like we do with our 9810s? Again-thanks for the detailed info, and BTW, I clicked on the BIS link below, it tood me to a registration page for a BB/AT&T to set up an email account-humm-not doing that-lol.

    PS: just found out from a friend that is a hybrid builder and knows BB inside and out, that th BIS (4 dots) icon comes on automatically when you turn on the wifi--whether or not you have BIS. But the push still will not work if you do not have a BIS account set up. We do not have BIS, and even though the icon is there when I turn on the wifi, there is no push of emails. However if you look at your options, you will see that when the WiFi is turned on, it says BB internet service connection, so it's for the internet I guess.
    Legacy (BB OS 7 & Earlier) won't fully work without one of BIS or BES.

    The 4 BlackBerry dots do Not automatically come on when you turn on the WiFi. If that was the case why would they be on when you Don't have a WiFi connction?
    02-15-13 10:39 AM
  6. Neely2005's Avatar
    So it seems like I'm REALLY going to miss the Data Compression of BIS!

    Last month (January Invoice) I used 173.67 MB of Data on my Bold 9700.

    My new Invoice (February Invoice) generated on February 11th and I used 359.91 MB of Data between my Bold 9700 & 7 DAYS on my Z10.

    This could be problematic when my wife switches from her Bold 9700 to a Q10.
    So in my first full month with the BlackBerry Z10 & No BIS I used 545.84 MB of Data.

    For comparison in January I used 173.67 MB of Data on my Bold 9700 with BIS.

    Since my wife usually uses around 50 MB of Data on her Bold 9700 with BIS and I used to use about 3 Times as much as her on my Bold 9700 with BIS I think that we should just be okay most months.

    There definitely is a big difference without BIS though!
    03-18-13 10:40 AM
  7. darkehawke's Avatar
    The z10 does not use BIS as we were used to.
    I'm using my old 9810 contract in my Z10 which has full BIS and I can confirm there is no compression at all. I have used more data this month then I did in the year I had my Torch

    Posted via CB10
    03-18-13 07:01 PM
  8. pythons's Avatar
    Not a chance, and any honest cell rep would tell you that.....
    ...The legacy devices "sipped" data - the new ones will GULP IT.
    ...Just like a Droid or an iphone GULPS IT.
    03-18-13 07:05 PM
  9. calicocat2010's Avatar
    As long as we use Wifi at available places mind you, we should be Ok.
    Though I am a little concerned because I have a 3GB data plan. I don't stream music, I use the built in media player, and I don't stream movies much.
    I guess I will have to see when mine comes in this Friday.
    03-18-13 07:55 PM
  10. red stripe's Avatar
    I lucked out with a $60, 6Gig plan! I'm hoping that's more than enough for me!
    Luck? Depends I guess. I have 6GB per month with no tethering restrictions for $30 (Canada).

    As far as the OP question the answer of course is, it depends. With the Z10 having a larger, higher resolution screen (s)he may find that more video streaming, web surfing etc takes place which would result in higher data consumption. Kind of like LTE users tend to use more data since it is such a pleasant experience to use the low latency high bandwidth connection.

    For me, 6B is plenty. Lots of streaming music, Skype, vid conferencing, web surfing but not a whole lot of streaming video.

    I assume in a few years, people will be able to give up their "land line" Internet access and just have mobile data like many have given up their phone land line and just have a mobile phone. In theory unlimited plans should do this now but I have heard there are often "fair use" restrictions that throttle data access speed after a certain limit (?5 GB or so?).

    100 GB for $50 anyone?
    03-19-13 02:06 AM
  11. Xopher's Avatar
    When my carrier passed on the 9930, I got a Galaxy S as a replacement for my Tour (which didn't have wifi). I was using around 300mb on my Tour at the time. In my head, I calculated needing about 3x as much data, figuring I would use about 1GB of my 5GB plan.

    When the phone was new, I probably hit the 1GB mark. But I am mostly on wifi at home, which is where I do most of the media streaming, and haven't hit 1GB since. I've done the same thing with every phone since, including the Z10.

    It is all going to matter on how often you are on wifi, and how much streaming you will do when using your data plan.

    Posted via CB10
    03-19-13 07:24 AM
  12. Neely2005's Avatar
    As long as we use Wifi at available places mind you, we should be Ok.
    Though I am a little concerned because I have a 3GB data plan. I don't stream music, I use the built in media player, and I don't stream movies much.
    I guess I will have to see when mine comes in this Friday.
    Yeah I'm much more careful about using WiFi now that I don't have BIS.



    Posted via CB10
    03-19-13 09:42 AM
  13. darkehawke's Avatar
    As long as we use Wifi at available places mind you, we should be Ok.
    Though I am a little concerned because I have a 3GB data plan. I don't stream music, I use the built in media player, and I don't stream movies much.
    I guess I will have to see when mine comes in this Friday.
    I have a 1 gig plan and have used just over half of it this month. But I always use wifi when I am at home. I have watched a couple of YouTube videos with my data.
    So if you are careful, 2-3 gig should be fine

    Posted via CB10
    03-19-13 10:39 AM
  14. calicocat2010's Avatar
    I have a 1 gig plan and have used just over half of it this month. But I always use wifi when I am at home. I have watched a couple of YouTube videos with my data.
    So if you are careful, 2-3 gig should be fine



    Posted via CB10
    Thanks.
    I have wifi at home and here at my second job, but my 1st job has literally No wifi at all and so I don' t want to use my phone as much, which ironically being New I will probably still be customizing it to my liking. Though if I get it this weekend I can sit down and get all customizing done Over wifi and sync accounts. I should be good before the weekday.
    03-20-13 02:00 PM
  15. TgeekB's Avatar
    Just use WIFI when available and you will not have a problem. Been using Android for at least a year and never use over 1GB.
    03-20-13 03:40 PM
  16. kill_9's Avatar
    As long as we use Wifi at available places mind you, we should be Ok.
    The danger of using open WiFi access points should be kept in mind.

    Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10
    03-20-13 09:59 PM
41 12

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