[Nindia]

I've searched far and wide and haven't been able to find a clear answer.

Is a BES data plan still going to be required to use a device on a BES10 server?

I travel a fair amount for work and one of the major reasons I still use a BlackBerry is because the data compression when I'm out of the country saves me hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars every year. I would like to know if we will still be able to route our work emails through RIM's NOC and take advantage of the compression? Or do I have to deal with the outrageous bills iPhone/Android users have to deal with?

[anon(2523636)]

Short answer is NO.
Longer answer is that some carriers will still insist you have a 'Blackberry enterprise contract', but it doesn't have any technical reason its just a sales thing (or incompetence).
If you have the BDS component of BES10 installed and activate on the BB10 device as a Work connection you will still get some data compression for Email and PIM sync over the normal Activesync compression.

[VariisNetworks]

I've been told by my Bell rep that BES data plans are NOT required for the new BES 10.

[Jackal99]

Have either of you tried it on Sasktel because I can tell you if you are provisioning with BES10 you will need the BES BB10 SOCK (SOC?) code added to you data plan otherwise you cannot activate wirelessly.

[anon(2523636)]

Have either of you tried it on Sasktel because I can tell you if you are provisioning with BES10 you will need the BES BB10 SOCK (SOC?) code added to you data plan otherwise you cannot activate wirelessly.

That is a local carrier oddity. Until I got the micro SIM through from my carrier I used the micro-SIM from another carrier that I was using with my iPad (definitely no BB service link) and it worked fine (including activation).
Local carriers doing odd **** like this is really not going to help Blackberry, its not needed unless they have added an extra step in the way (you can activate over WiFi with no carrier involvement at all, so 100% doesn't need anything special done).

[AquaGoat]

I think doing away with the BES data is the right move. What with BES10 and BB10 having such a strong BYOD focus it wouldn't make sense to make people change their data plan to join the corporate BES. Also I'm fairly sure if you added BES data to an iPhone or Android with the intent on joining the UDS you'd have a bad time, so standard data has to be the way to go.

[Sysgen]

We had an issue where we could not do Wireless activations, it would come back with an error (Cannot contact server) with our Z10, but worked with Playbooks. It would only work with a USB connection. We contacted BBRY and here is what they told us,

Thank you for contacting BlackBerry Technical Support.

The specific plan is BlackBerry 10 Advance Service (SRV-ABB10). When we spoke the user was currently on a BlackBerry 10 Standard Service (SRV-SBB10).

Now here is the thing, we contacted Rogers about it and they were not clear which one we had! At the same time we restarted our BES10 server and the problem was gone, so I'm not sure which solution fixed the problem but I find it odd that BBRY Support mentioned that. It almost looks like SRV-ABB10 is for BES and SRV-SBB10 is for BIS. Anyone have more info on this?

[kill_9]

I think doing away with the BES data is the right move. What with BES10 and BB10 having such a strong BYOD focus it wouldn't make sense to make people change their data plan to join the corporate BES. Also I'm fairly sure if you added BES data to an iPhone or Android with the intent on joining the UDS you'd have a bad time, so standard data has to be the way to go.

You can get rid of the BES data plan and choose a generic data plan instead. Your thoughts on Android and iOS are on the mark.

Posted via CB10 from the BlackBerry Z10