[skibnik]

There is a lot of talk on theses forums about BB10 and BIS thought I'd give my thoughts on this. My idea is BlackBerry should release a BIS service for all platforms and charge a monthly fee for it say 5 bucks a month or 50 for a yearly contract. This service would then compress all your data saving the user from having to buy the more expensive high data plans I know download speeds would suffer but I feel the trade off of paying for say 500 mbs of data versus 1, 2 or 3 or more GB plans makes up for this. Secondly all data would be encrypted and secure. And lastly BlackBerry could introduce a higher tier service with a secure cloud service with secure and encrypted email I wouldn't mind having an email address such as [email protected] or @ BlackBerry etc. I'm by no means an expert on BIS so would like your opinions suggestions I feel this option would bring in much needed cash to BlackBerry as the infrastructure is pretty much in place so the ramp up costs would be minimal as well with the release of the Z3 for the emerging markets this would be a good incentive for OS7 users to make the switch over to BB10.

Z30 and loving it!

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Carriers don't want it...

Never mind if it were possible, they need to add it as an option to BB10 like yesterday.

[skibnik]

Carriers wouldn't have a say since it would be available to all platforms and use BlackBerry servers.

Z30 and loving it!

[anon(2757538)]

Carriers wouldn't have a say since it would be available to all platforms and use BlackBerry servers.

Z30 and loving it!

Using the carrier's network to communicate with the BlackBerry servers...

[skibnik]

The main reason carriers hate BIS is that they had to pay to use the service when BlackBerry had market share this was no problem. This time around the cost would be charged directly to the user.

Z30 and loving it!

[SmellWhole]

Using the carrier's network to communicate with the BlackBerry servers...

Carriers shouldn't have any say in whose servers and services users access on line. They charge for data, users pay for data, and the carriers should simply do their job and deliver the data.

[Troy Tiscareno]

Carriers shouldn't have any say in whose servers and services users access on line. They charge for data, users pay for data, and the carriers should simply do their job and deliver the data.

The problem is: if the carrier isn't hosting BIS, then there isn't going to be any benefit in the compression, because the uncompressed traffic would have to travel through the carrier's normal network to get to BB. And the carriers don't want to host BIS servers OR pay fees to BB.

The other issue is that the majority of today's data is already compressed: pictures, music, video, app updates, etc. are all pre-compressed and don't gain any advantage from being run through BIS. The only thing that does are emails, texts, and website HTML code, and the relative advantage of compressing that is quite small for most users.

The bottom line is that BIS is a technology that is mostly obsolete and irrelevant with modern mobile computing, and while it still provides a benefit in a small (and quickly shrinking) number of countries who are still mostly on 2G, it becomes less relevant every day as networks are upgraded and users use more and more services, with most of the newer ones using data that can't be further compressed much if at all.

If it still had real value to end-users, it would have been kept, but it really no longer adds value in mature markets, nor in most emerging markets, because most have at least upgraded to 3G now.

BIS was a great solution in its time, but usage of mobile data has changed, and time (and costs to users and carriers) have left BIS behind. Those few who REALLY need a similar solution can use proxied web browsing or even compressed VPNs to reduce data usage, but few will care enough to do this.

[Phi Nguyen]

Hate to break it to you but bis like compression is already cross platform and not yet tethered to bbry servers

Opera and chrome both offer compression
Opera is more upto date as far as compression goes vs bis according to some

Google Chrome compression has status of your compression and how much you save

Posted via the Android CrackBerry App!

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

BBOS is staying around for two reasons.

1) Company's that haven't upgraded to BES10.

2) Those developing markets where BIS enabled BlackBerry saw so much popularity.... due to special, low cost, low usage data plans.

For more developed markets the need for BIS is pretty much gone....and as the rest of the markets slowly update their networks, carriers will just have to find a ways to offer users plans that fit their budgets, or risk losing them.

[3_M4N]

Yes! What better way to stem the revenue bleeding due to loss of BIS revenue, than to continue offering it and make it cross platform! Something like this totally fall in like with the new BlackBerry that wants to focus on more SAS type activities and not be so reliant on phone sale revenue.
One of the biggest benefits of BIS is that it would allow people to communicate to one another when the carrier networks were down. You can't tell me that's not a feature that people would pay top dollar for. Even if it was only email/instant messaging services. I think it would be huge.


Posted while peeking and flowing on my incredible BBQ10! ?

[Troy Tiscareno]

One of the biggest benefits of BIS is that it would allow people to communicate to one another when the carrier networks were down. You can't tell me that's not a feature that people would pay top dollar for. Even if it was only email/instant messaging services. I think it would be huge.

Huge? You have to be joking. While networks do occasionally go down, it certainly doesn't happen often enough that people are going to want to pay anything, much less "top dollar" for what is essentially insurance against such failures. That might appeal to a relative handful of businesses, but I strongly doubt you could get more than 2% of BB's installed base to pay real money for this by choice.

Remember, many people would have access to WiFi and could use various messaging apps during those rare network failures, and a lot of other people would simply be okay with waiting a little while until the issue was resolved.

[3_M4N]

Huge? You have to be joking.

Nope. Not kidding. And you wouldn't have to be a professional to need to want a service like that. Any one with a family or significant other would find value in a service like that. There are several instances where BlackBerrys were able to communicate in disaster areas when networks weren't connecting.

http://m.cio.com/article/559363/Blac...%26FORM%3DPORE

Posted while peeking and flowing on my incredible BBQ10! ?

[Troy Tiscareno]

Nope. Not kidding. And you wouldn't have to be a professional to need to want a service like that. Any one with a family or significant other would find value in a service like that. There are several instances where BlackBerrys were able to communicate in disaster areas when networks weren't connecting.

I wasn't arguing that the NOC allowed BB communications when other types of communications weren't working - I know that's true. I'm arguing that the vast majority of customers are simply not going to pay a monthly fee for what amounts to "insurance" - the possible (but not guaranteed) ability to communicate in the rare instances that the main network goes down.

Sure, they love it if they're already paying for it (because they had no choice) and they found some additional value in such an event, but given the choice, only a handful of people will pony up to pay for it for that reason alone. Some big business, perhaps, and a few consumers, maybe. But then you have the problem of: these people can only talk to other BBM users, and the fewer of those there are (and the fewer on BB phones vs. other platforms), the less valuable this service becomes.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

What would it cost?

Don't expect carriers to be reasonable on the fees ( why should they). So $5, $10, $15 a month... very few would go $5 with out more than just BIS.

Posted via CB10

[skibnik]

What would it cost?

Don't expect carriers to be reasonable on the fees ( why should they). So $5, $10, $15 a month... very few would go $5 with out more than just BIS.

Posted via CB10

Legacy BIS service charges were/are charged to the carriers to use the service who then pass down the cost to the user. The cross platform BIS that I proposed would be charged directly to the user.

Z30 and loving it!

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

Legacy BIS service charges were/are charged to the carriers to use the service who then pass down the cost to the user. The cross platform BIS that I proposed would be charged directly to the user.

Z30 and loving it!

I think that for BIS only... VERY few would pay extra. Maybe bundled with email and other secure cloud services. It might work if it could operate at 4G speeds.

But you are also forgetting that for BIS to work the way it works, the carriers have to have the equipment in place... THEY are going to want their piece of the pie for this cross-platform service. I know most prepaid providers in the US now charge $10 more for a plan that allows a BlackBerry device with BIS and full Data over just a standard plan. So say BlackBerry gave people a discount over a full BES plan an only charged $60, that an additional $5 a month added to what a carrier might charge. So $10 - $15 dollars a month, is pretty expensive when you look at it..

[chalx]

I myself don't see some benefit from BIS, but I see a lot of pro BIS posts here. So lets see what BBRY could try... they could try to create a Blackberry experience app for Android and WP trying to utilize as much as possible options offered to developers by respected platforms. On Android they could create real near BB10 experience altogether with BB10 launcher, icons, keyboard and possibly HUB. On WP this would be much harder, because of limited customization options in WP, but they could probably offer some version of unified inbox which would draw to some resemblance with HUB. As a part of Blackberry experience app, they could offer BBM app and BIS connectivity at least for BBM. I don't know how it would work for all internet traffic because of stupid service books.

[Dunt Dunt Dunt]

BIS had a place on OLD networks where data usage was a premium and shrinking an email from 85KB to 30KB was advantageous. No one in the US, Canada, GB.... wants BIS today, yes maybe they want a BlackBerry and maybe they want BBM and maybe they want Security and they might can get that with BlackBerry preparing BES10 Cloud launch, sign up links have now gone live | CrackBerry.com

In Developing markets where carrier are still using older equipment.... BIS has become popular there for now. But as those systems are upgraded and data usage is not as tightly controlled, BIS and BBOS are being left behind just like they were years ago by consumers in more developed markets years ago.

[Thesmartmale]

BBOS is staying around for two reasons.

1) Company's that haven't upgraded to BES10.

2) Those developing markets where BIS enabled BlackBerry saw so much popularity.... due to special, low cost, low usage data plans.

For more developed markets the need for BIS is pretty much gone....and as the rest of the markets slowly update their networks, carriers will just have to find a ways to offer users plans that fit their budgets, or risk losing them.

Egypt is a developing market and guess what? BIS is more expensive than Data and so is the case in Saudi Arabia and most of the countries in the area, BIS is so old and no one likes not being able to use the phone at all unless they have BIS.

I pay $3 for 1.25 GB of data in Egypt and a little more in Saudi Arabia

Posted via CB10