BB Bold 9700 International Roaming WiFi v. Phone/Data Network Options for Connection

[jsbb9700]

Here's my situation and perhaps members of this forum can help.

I have a BB Bold 9700 locked to T-Mobile USA.* I have the latest version of the BB OS.

Shortly, I will be traveling outside the USA.* In the past, with NON-WIFI BB's that I had through T-Mobile, I signed up for an approx. $20 per month plan with T-Mo US that allowed me to send and receive emails while traveling abroad.* While abroad, mobile phone calls were charged at a (high) rate (separate from the abovementioend "email data" plan) and I understand that if I browsed the web or used a BB app that accessed the web, I'd be charged a (high) rate for data access via the cell phone network.

Now, with this new(ish) phone, I have a few apps - notably TripIt, Evernote, a weather app, UberTween and a couple of Google-based apps that appear to frequently access the web (presumably via the cell network as I'm rarely near a WiFi access point when they update).

Obviously, this poses a problem as I would like to be able to make and receive calls and send and receive emails but NOT have the phone access the web (e.g. through the browser or through the apps) without my "permission."

Amoungst the OPTIONS > NETWORKS AND CONNECTIONS > MOBILE NETWORK - I was hoping to somehow set "Data Services" [On or Off]

"While Roaming" [ On Off or Prompt]

and/or

"Connection Preference" [Mobile Network Only, Mobile Network Preferred Wi-Fi Only or Wif-Fi Preferred]

to the appropriate options to keep the "phone" portion of my BB and the email portion of my BB working and accessing the phone network and have the "web" or "data" portions/programs of/on my BB locked out (or at least locked out b/c they can't find a WiFi access point) to avoid a mega data bill upon return.

Thoughts appreciated.

Thanks!

[raino]

If you will have access to a good/constant Wi-Fi connection, I suggest turning the mobile network off and keeping your phone on "Wi-Fi connection only" wherever you're going. This will put you in strict UMA mode, where instead of the mobile network, your phone will be on the Wi-Fi network. Your phone will work just as it would on a mobile network: you'll get emails, phone calls, text messages, etc. I'm not a 100% sure about third-party apps, but my guess is that they too should work on UMA.

If I were you, I'd set the "Data While Roaming" feature to off. I got hit for a very miniscule amount of data, and had to pay for the full MB at the roaming rate. Of course, theoretically when you're on UMA with the mobile network turned off, this shouldn't happen, but it's an additional, simple step to prevent any unnecessary surprises later on.

[lobbyintx]

my experience is 3rd party apps work on uma. one side note, when you use uma abroad it registers as if you are in the USA. so the flag on your bbm profile will correspond with the signal.

[jeffharris]

The actual answer to jsbb9700 is, there's no real way to isolate e-mail data from other data. You just have to know which apps might be using regular data, and not use them, or turn the updatiing off (such as in weather apps), while on 3g data. WiFi data and UMA of course is all free.