BB International email plan

[sinlessearth]

I know there is a thread on this but it is old and outdated. So I am wondering what experiences everyone has had as far as being charged for data usage. I am currently in the middle east and have used email, BBM, and Facebook but have not been charged any extra. Does anyone know about the native browser? I have deleted the Tmo APN from the options just to be safe. Currently the main carrier I use is Etisalat AF. Thanks for any help.

[eluth]

It's little bit more complicated than that but you are almost there.
By, disabling the TCP/IP APN you are only disabling one of the data path that generates Internet Access (billed at $15/MB in roaming).

The only data path that is included in the BB International email plan is the one router through the RIM server (it shows as RIM Blackberry on your bill instead of Internet Access) and is commonly known as BIS-B.

Beyond TCP/IP, WAP, WAP 2.0 and MMS (configured via service books) are either using epc.tmobile.com or wap.voicestream.com APNs. If you have an application using them, you will get billed. Best is to make sure you don't have any or that the associated services books are deleted (beware, they can be pushed back when you hopping from one roaming network to the next).

See for details Blackberry Data Roaming

--eluth.

[sinlessearth]

So I have gone and delete those service books and anyothers I could find related to tmo. Is it safe to assume that everything will run through the RIM server now? I will continue to check everytime the carrier changes to ensure those are still deleted. Thanks for the info.

[eluth]

sinlessearth,

Nothing is safe in this world! ... but it is somewhat controlable.

If you remove the WAP and MMS related services books, you will prevent your phone from using the associated APNs. That means that all traffic generated by the phone will go over the RIM servers, but that also means that the applications that are not allowed or capable to go over the RIM network will stop working, possibly raise error messages and/or make your Blackberry unstable.

Another point. Your carrier can technically push these services books back at anytime. In practice, I only noticed that when I'm rebooting the BB or I'm jumping from one carrier to a different one while roaming. Only that situation I got the service books I had deleted, pushed back.

How do I know? While I don't know how to prevent that mechanism, it is quite easy to detect it:

1. Just add the WAP browser to your home screen,
2. then go delete your WAP related services books,
3. you will notice your WAP browser has been removed from your home screen!

[sinlessearth]

Ok so I noticed Tmo has finally decided to show roaming charges as the month goes on. I have been running some tests. I have deleted all service books related above. I can run BBM (5 mb files transfers pics, music, videos, pdfs), Email ( download attachments), facebook ( upload/download pics), AOL IM, Live IM, and Twitter. I know the browser runs through RIM servers because it takes forever to get the page to load compared to before I deleted the service books. Any ideas on what I can do next? I have used the BB browser 3 times and have a $2.54 charge.

[eluth]

Originally Posted by sinlessearth

Ok so I noticed Tmo has finally decided to show roaming charges as the month goes on. I have been running some tests. I have deleted all service books related above. I can run BBM (5 mb files transfers pics, music, videos, pdfs), Email ( download attachments), facebook ( upload/download pics), AOL IM, Live IM, and Twitter. I know the browser runs through RIM servers because it takes forever to get the page to load compared to before I deleted the service books. Any ideas on what I can do next? I have used the BB browser 3 times and have a $2.54 charge.

Are you 100% sure about the browser running through the RIM servers? if you try to go to a site that exposes you IP address like IP Chicken - Whats my IP address? ip address lookup what do you get? a RIM or an operator IP?

Do you know who much data you consumed with your browser experiment?

Do you have any other application running in the background?

[sinlessearth]

I used the browser to open mobile facebook page, open google.com, and cnn.com.
I have now went to crackberry.com because its a bigger page (waiting on the charge to show up). Looking at ipchicken it says name address .rdns.blackberry.net The IP it showed searched to be:
NetRange: 74.82.64.0 - 74.82.95.255
CIDR: 74.82.64.0/19
OriginAS: AS18705
NetName: RIM-BLACKBERRY-NET-05
NetHandle: NET-74-82-64-0-1
Parent: NET-74-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: XNS01LHR.RIM.NET
NameServer: XNS01YKF.RIM.NET
I am 100% sure that no apps are running in the back ground. I have gone 2 months with no charges until I decided to start testing my browser and deleting service books. as far as how much data well I think google was 5k, cnn was 64k dont remember facebook, crackberry was 61k and about the same for ipchicken.

[sinlessearth]

Ok so looking at my-t-mobile again the charges are not related to data use. I will have to wait till my bill comes out to see about the browser charges. Got a question though. The charges appear to be voice roaming/min charges. Heres what I am wondering about. Sometimes I will connect to a wifi network for app world. Now with the tmo service books deleted it will show UMA through tmo germany. Do you think that this is the cause of the charges? Should I change carrier networks to get my servicebooks back before connecting through wifi. Is there a way to just disable UMA? Thanks for any help.

[eluth]

UMA has nothing to do with Service Books.
UMA is active when you turn on Wifi unless you select Mobile Network only or Mobile Network Prefered in you connection preferences.

About your charges, do you already have your detailed usage or not?
Sometimes it takes T-Mobile up to 7 days after you get your full monthly $ amount to get the details at the end of the billing cycle. When you have it, it should be clear to know what you consumed and what you were billed for on the data as well as the voice side.

[eluth]

Originally Posted by sinlessearth

Ok so looking at my-t-mobile again the charges are not related to data use. I will have to wait till my bill comes out to see about the browser charges. Got a question though. The charges appear to be voice roaming/min charges. Heres what I am wondering about. Sometimes I will connect to a wifi network for app world. Now with the tmo service books deleted it will show UMA through tmo germany. Do you think that this is the cause of the charges? Should I change carrier networks to get my servicebooks back before connecting through wifi. Is there a way to just disable UMA? Thanks for any help.

Sinlessearth,

Is this case closed? Can you confirm 100% that your "$2.54 charge" is not data related?

[sinlessearth]

No this case is not closed yet. I am still waiting for my final bill. Today is the last day on my cycle so I will have it in about 5 days. I have been keeping track of the charge and its has went to $3.30 now $3.70. I do notice a trend though. Everytime I reboot or switch networks and get my service books back is when the charges show. You think I am getting charged for recieving the service books again. The reason I think this may be it is because I have gone to approx 7 sites listed on my lasts posts, blackberry homepage, I have opened blackberry maps. I know that at a $15 per Mb rate that should have racked up way more that $3.70. A few months ago before you taught me about the service books I opened the browser and closed it before the page loaded and got charged $5.50 just for that one time. What do you think? I talked to Tmo on the chat and of course they could only say it is related to roaming, REALLY They said I would have to wait until bill was final.

[eluth]

Originally Posted by sinlessearth

No this case is not closed yet. I am still waiting for my final bill. Today is the last day on my cycle so I will have it in about 5 days. I have been keeping track of the charge and its has went to $3.30 now $3.70. I do notice a trend though. Everytime I reboot or switch networks and get my service books back is when the charges show. You think I am getting charged for recieving the service books again. The reason I think this may be it is because I have gone to approx 7 sites listed on my lasts posts, blackberry homepage, I have opened blackberry maps. I know that at a $15 per Mb rate that should have racked up way more that $3.70. A few months ago before you taught me about the service books I opened the browser and closed it before the page loaded and got charged $5.50 just for that one time. What do you think? I talked to Tmo on the chat and of course they could only say it is related to roaming, REALLY They said I would have to wait until bill was final.

OK. Sinlessearth
I'm lost here. How can you have detailed $ charges if your billing cycle hasn't closed yet? As far as I'm concerned, I never got a $ figure before the cycle had closed. As far as service books are concerned:

• you clearly will have traffic generated and metered to push back your service books after reboot or roaming operator change,
• that traffic is BIS and you should not get charged for it under the international plan,
• however, remember the WAP2 service book is coming back and another application running in the background at the time could generate additional charges!
• bottom line, be carefully about what is running at all time.

[sinlessearth]

You are correct. I do not have a detailed bill as of now. I think Tmo changed their site because now I see charges before my bill is final and there isn't any data from last months billing cycle. It use to be that I would see data from the month before but on this cycle the only data that shows up is within my current cycle. Maybe they are showing charges as they occur rather than blindsiding customers at the end of the month or 2 months down the road as I have read in many forums before. When I log into my.t-mobile.com it will say that I have a $3.70 charge that excedes my roaming plan. I will post the results when I get my final bill so we can be clear on this, cool?

[eluth]

I just wanted to add some information to this discussion.

From my October billing cycle, I can confirm I did not get charged for service books update on the phone. I roamed in several countries in Europe and did not generate any "Internet Access" traffic only "RIM Blackberry".
==> This was for usage in second half of September 2010.

However, I also found out this: Specifying an APN for Direct TCP.
In short, it means that no matter what you change in phone configuration, technically you can write an application capable of using your TCP/IP APN even if you disable it in our settings. It just need to identify your carrier network and based on that use the proper setting in the http connection string!

Conclusion: be extra-careful about application that still work after APN disabled and service books removed. They either use BIS or have the APN hard-coded and there is no generic rules about this.

I hope this helps even if it might raise more confusion at first.
--eluth.

[sinlessearth]

Ok so I got my bill. It is official that TMO now shows data charges before the end of billing cycle. I had 10 total charges of $.37 each at .0244mb each. It wasnt any of the websites I visited some of it was on days that I never used the browser except wifi. Not sure what it is really. But $3.70 total isnt bad. Got any ideas? I know a browser page is more than .0244mb, you agree? i went to a 266 k site just now so I will verify that it does show up tomorrow. I will also stay off of the wifi for a week or so and see if it is somehow related to that.