[ImaNewberry]

Hi,

I am looking into purchasing a blackberry but unfortunately my employer's email is only supported on Windows phones.

I've been told by some co-workers that you can sync your blackberry to your desktop in order to receive emails and appointments from Outlook.

I'm curious as to how this works. Would it use data on my plan...or browsing...or email usage?

Some of the plans I have looked at include unlimited email and browsing, but say they do not support tethering. I'm not sure if tethering would be the same thing as syncing?

I'm in Canada so very few of the providers offer a general data plan. Most of them say "browsing email and messaging unlimited."

I apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on this topic, but when I called some phone companies to ask about this, the people on the hotlines were clueless.

I figured this might be a better option for me.

Any insight would be wonderful!

Thanks

[Motorcycle Mama]

Can you access your work email via Outlook Web Access? If so, you probably can get your email pushed to the device via the BIS settings. It's not the same as BES and doesn't "sync" the email.

And as to the calendar, depending upon the Outlook version you are using, you might be able to sync the calendar with BlacKBerry Desktop Manager. It's not wireless, however.

[SolarPlexus]

Hi,

I am looking into purchasing a blackberry but unfortunately my employer's email is only supported on Windows phones.

I've been told by some co-workers that you can sync your blackberry to your desktop in order to receive emails and appointments from Outlook.

I'm curious as to how this works. Would it use data on my plan...or browsing...or email usage?

Some of the plans I have looked at include unlimited email and browsing, but say they do not support tethering. I'm not sure if tethering would be the same thing as syncing?

I'm in Canada so very few of the providers offer a general data plan. Most of them say "browsing email and messaging unlimited."

I apologize for my complete lack of knowledge on this topic, but when I called some phone companies to ask about this, the people on the hotlines were clueless.

I figured this might be a better option for me.

Any insight would be wonderful!

Thanks

I use my employer's Outlook Web Access to push my emails to my phone. and I use Desktop Sync to sync calendar events. Its a bit inconvenient but it works.
Desktop Sync and and tethering are very different. Tethering, as the phone company uses it, refers to using your phone as a modem. When people say they tether their blackberry to their computer, sometimes they mean plugging it in to the computer. Its a bit confusing.

Hope I didn't confuse you more.

[ImaNewberry]

Can you access your work email via Outlook Web Access? If so, you probably can get your email pushed to the device via the BIS settings. It's not the same as BES and doesn't "sync" the email.

And as to the calendar, depending upon the Outlook version you are using, you might be able to sync the calendar with BlacKBerry Desktop Manager. It's not wireless, however.

Yes I can access it via Microsoft Exchange.

I'm just wondering, if I do this, does it use data or web browsing...or email?
It's very confusing to me because I'm not sure what the difference is between unlimited browsing/email and unlimited data.

I don't want to get extra charges if I do this.

[ImaNewberry]

I use my employer's Outlook Web Access to push my emails to my phone. and I use Desktop Sync to sync calendar events. Its a bit inconvenient but it works.
Desktop Sync and and tethering are very different. Tethering, as the phone company uses it, refers to using your phone as a modem. When people say they tether their blackberry to their computer, sometimes they mean plugging it in to the computer. Its a bit confusing.

Hope I didn't confuse you more.

Not confusing at all, it actually cleared things up for me.

When you push your emails, does it send an autoreply saying anything about forwarding?

[mark-d]

If your company has OWA then you can set up your email on Blackberry Internet Service which will push the email to your phone. This would come under unlimited email.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Reed McLay]

In the past, the Canadian carriers treated "Unlmited" like a bad word. A typical BlackBerry BIS plan was bundled with a certain amount of data. If you used that data, you are charged for the excess.

Now, our carriers are offering an Unlimited EMail and Messaging plan. The catch is, the applications that use the most data, Web Browsing, Media Streaming and third party app still need data. If you use any of them, you will incure additional charges at a very high rate.

Tethering is when you use your BlackBerry to connect your computer to the Internet. That uses a ton of data.

When you syncronize with Outlook, there is no data being used.

[ImaNewberry]

In the past, the Canadian carriers treated "Unlmited" like a bad word. A typical BlackBerry BIS plan was bundled with a certain amount of data. If you used that data, you are charged for the excess.

Now, our carriers are offering an Unlimited EMail and Messaging plan. The catch is, the applications that use the most data, Web Browsing, Media Streaming and third party app still need data. If you use any of them, you will incure additional charges at a very high rate.

Tethering is when you use your BlackBerry to connect your computer to the Internet. That uses a ton of data.

When you syncronize with Outlook, there is no data being used.

Thanks for explaining all of that. It's very confusing the way the plans are worded on the sites. It doesn't really specify what falls into what category.

I know one of my co-workers has her blackberry set up to sync with her computer...but she has to leave the computer on in order for this to work.

If this is what I have to end up doing then it's good to know that data will not be used.