BB abroad - more questions and update

I asked a few questions here regarding using my BB in Israel and the conclusion was that my only cheap way of doing it would be in a WiFi area.

Today I learned that the third provider in Israel - Pelephone - offers a prepaid SIM with a local number that I can keep forever for about $25; in addition, unlike the other two providers, it is possible to add a BB package to prepaid SIMs. The lowest they have is $15 for 1gb (?!)...sounds too good to be true, but lets assume that this is true.
BTW - Pelephone was the very first cell company in Israel. For many many years they insisted on sticking to CDMA technology, and about a year or so ago they gave in and included GSM services, probably because they could not compete any more with the other two - Cellcom and Orange - who are GSM only.

In any case here is my technical question and I apologize if it sounds dumb.
If I buy this package, what will happen to my current BB settings, email in particular? Is the Israeli BB plan uses the same 'servers' (for the lack of a better description)? Will my BB email/service books get screwed with the transfer between the U.S. network and Israel and again when I am back in the U.S.?
In other words - I land somewhere, I plug in the local SIM with local BB, and the BB continues working as if I was on U.S. soil? No set up changes needed?

Thanks in advance.

I have been following your previous thread.

It is always hard to tell just what changes you will need to make. I travel from Europe to the US quite a bit and I always have to spend a few minutes changing thigs over each time I land. I now keep a spare BlackBerry for my travels and I drop my foreign SIM cards (AT&T in the US and Swisscom in Switzerland) in that.

When you insert a modern SIM card in a phone, it will automatically assign thengs like your service number for SMS and voicemail numbers. You usually get a few free entries in your Contacts list that the new carrier tbinks you will find useful.

On a BlackBerry there are three other sets of things that wil happen.

1). on SIM card insertion the BlackBerry will be recognized and new Service Books will be sent. However you will not yet get email and internet. You may see new icons on the Desktop as the carrier sends you all sort os new and useless links. Just Menu, Hide all these. You will most likely see the word " edge " at the top of your screen in lower case. i.e. network detected but not yet logged in.

2). when your BIS account is active (1 - 3 days usually for a new account) a new set of Service Books will be sent. This time enabling blackberry.net for access. Now you will see EDGE (uppercase = logged in and ready to use the internet) or maybe 3G and the BlackBerry logo. More icons may also apear on yoru Desktop. Don't hide these yet.

3). lastly you need to set up your emails on the new BIS account. You should go to either Pelephone's BIS site (they will tell you the web address) or you may be directed to do this via the email setup icon on your phone.

You may also wish to set your APN (Options, Advanced Options, TCP/IP) settings to Pelephone. I found these settings but have no idea if they are correct.

Name: Pelephone 3G
APN: internet.pelephone.net.il
Username: pcl@3g
Password: pcl
APN type: default

One final point. Since 9/11 many carriers have made it far more difficult for non-residents to obtain SIM cards. The 9/11 bombers used Swiss SIM cards which, at the time, you could just walk into a Post Office and buy over the counter.

This has now ceased and often a bona fode address and even the reuirement to produce a recent utility bill with your name and (local country) address on it have become the norm. I could not buy an AT&T SIM card my US resident son had to do it for me.

Thhere is often a waiting period of a few days whilst you physically have a new but non-working SIM card and the carrier verifies your details and then initiallized the SIM card on his network.

Please make sure that you have researched this last before you are disapointed on arrival. Maybe a local friend or colleague can obtain the SIM card for you.

Hope this helps.

Thank you Pete6 for this great, informative response. Much appreciated!!

I should have no problem obtaining an Israeli SIM because I am an Israeli citizen and I also have relatives in Israel.
Reading through all the changes, I am again starting to question the worthiness of the whole thing (weighing the need vs. want).
And I completely forgot about the address book...last thing I want is for all my address to be gone. Not that it should happen, but I am not a big fan of touching things if they are not broken ;)

Originally Posted by Pete6

2). when your BIS account is active (1 - 3 days usually for a new account) a new set of Service Books will be sent. This time enabling blackberry.net for access. Now you will see EDGE (uppercase = logged in and ready to use the internet) or maybe 3G and the BlackBerry logo. More icons may also apear on yoru Desktop. Don't hide these yet.

3). lastly you need to set up your emails on the new BIS account. You should go to either Pelephone's BIS site (they will tell you the web address) or you may be directed to do this via the email setup icon on your phone.

I am curious though, and this is what I still don't understand:
So basically, each provider is a "BB world of it's own"?? If I already have a BB email through AT&T, I will not be able to access it with a different provider's SIM in the phone?
If that's the case, then I believe I came to the realization that the it really does not worth the trouble of all the changes/cost involved. I could just get a SIM without the BB service.

Thanks again!

It is interesting that t on your phone, albeityou question the validity of doing this fo I too have just about given up on the temporary use of my BlackBerry whilst abroad.

Each carrier operates its own BlackBerry universe. The carrier administers and charges for its own services using the RIM supplied BlackBerry Internet Service. Within each BlackBerry universe, each phone operates as an entity and there are no leaks.

Change the carrier and you change universes. You need to set up all your emails and accept a diferent charging structure each time.

However there are some things that can still be done. I am rarely far from a PC so email is not too hard to get to.

If you buy a Bolt-On internet package and use Opera-Mini or Bolt browsers + the APN settings I gave you, then you will at least have emergency internet available. This will be, as you have discovered, at an incredible cost compared to your home contract network. It will work though but the default browser will not as it uses BIS exclusively.

If you can buy a BIS connection on a month by month basis, then this is definitely the way to go.

Orange here in the UK do a 5 pounds a month Bolt-On for their pre-paid SIM cards. I use that on my backup phone in the car. Maybe you can find a similar deal like the $15 for 1Gb which does not sound too bad to me.

Yeah, the more I look into it my feet get colder :D ...it is definitely not a must thing for me.

Thanks again Pete, I learned something new!!

Just keep using your own blackberry when abroad, there's no cheaper way to roam then with a blackberry. You can optimise your blackberry before you go, use only the essential email account, unsubscribe from newsletters or mark them as spam temporarily, use bbm as much as you can, disable automore etc overall it shouldn't cost you that much.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by belfastdispatcher

Just keep using your own blackberry when abroad, there's no cheaper way to roam then with a blackberry. You can optimise your blackberry before you go, use only the essential email account, unsubscribe from newsletters or mark them as spam temporarily, use bbm as much as you can, disable automore etc overall it shouldn't cost you that much.

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Unless, as I mentioned, I don't need the BB (service) but rather "want" it, and I can use a local prepaid SIM card ;)

Originally Posted by belfastdispatcher

Just keep using your own blackberry when abroad, there's no cheaper way to roam then with a blackberry. You can optimise your blackberry before you go, use only the essential email account, unsubscribe from newsletters or mark them as spam temporarily, use bbm as much as you can, disable automore etc overall it shouldn't cost you that much.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

The voice of reason. Travel is a pain without any sim-changing nonsense.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Originally Posted by Spiffing

The voice of reason. Travel is a pain without any sim-changing nonsense.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Put it this way, I used my old 8320 on a bike trip last year for a week abroad, went from Belfast/Scotland/England/France/Belgium/Netherlands/Germany/Austria/Romania and back, I had gps tracker set up all the way and back updating every 30 minutes, used a lot of bbm, updated facebook including photos, received and wrote quite a few emails, took a lot more work calls then first expected then had to make a lot of callsto pass on the bookings (bluetooth headset in the helmet). The bill for that month was just extra �30.

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I think this rather depends on where you call home and where you travel to.

Within Europe we are somewhat protected by EC regulations and travel charges are quite cheap.

O2 want 6 pounds / Mb when I go to the US even though I pay for the International option and AT&T want $2 / Mb in the US because I don't have a plan over there.

Originally Posted by Pete6

One final point. Since 9/11 many carriers have made it far more difficult for non-residents to obtain SIM cards. The 9/11 bombers used Swiss SIM cards which, at the time, you could just walk into a Post Office and buy over the counter.

This has now ceased and often a bona fode address and even the reuirement to produce a recent utility bill with your name and (local country) address on it have become the norm. I could not buy an AT&T SIM card my US resident son had to do it for me.

Thhere is often a waiting period of a few days whilst you physically have a new but non-working SIM card and the carrier verifies your details and then initiallized the SIM card on his network.

Please make sure that you have researched this last before you are disapointed on arrival. Maybe a local friend or colleague can obtain the SIM card for you.

Hope this helps.

This again will vary from country to country. I was able to walk into a T-Mobile store in England and purchase a pay as you go sim card with no questions asked, no ID asked for or anything. If they had of asked, I could have provided my British DL OR my TX DL or British Passport as ID but at no time did they ask for anything. I paid my money, they hooked it up to the network and it was active before I left the store. He went on to say I was his third "American" to come into his store today for a sim card.

On the other hand, my husband who went to Saudi Arabia to work for a year, had to have his work permit in place before he could get a pay as you go or contract account set up.

Originally Posted by MintyMocha

This again will vary from country to country. I was able to walk into a T-Mobile store in England and purchase a pay as you go sim card with no questions asked, no ID asked for or anything. If they had of asked, I could have provided my British DL OR my TX DL or British Passport as ID but at no time did they ask for anything. I paid my money, they hooked it up to the network and it was active before I left the store. He went on to say I was his third "American" to come into his store today for a sim card.

On the other hand, my husband who went to Saudi Arabia to work for a year, had to have his work permit in place before he could get a pay as you go or contract account set up.

When I went to Carphone Warehouse last year, I had to produce a UK driver's licence, my passort and a utility bill. I have been a CPW customer since 1996.

I think that you must have an innocent looking face or, maybe I have.....:rolleyes:


I do know however that since 9/11 sales of SIM cards need to be verified. The UK is pretty lax on this stuff in-store.

Originally Posted by Pete6

When I went to Carphone Warehouse last year, I had to produce a UK driver's licence, my passort and a utility bill. I have been a CPW customer since 1996.

I think that you must have an innocent looking face or, maybe I have.....:rolleyes:


I do know however that since 9/11 sales of SIM cards need to be verified. The UK is pretty lax on this stuff in-store.

Maybe, but like I say, it was pretty much cut and dried: I just walked in, checked out the plans, got my card and left.

Originally Posted by MintyMocha

Maybe, but like I say, it was pretty much cut and dried: I just walked in, checked out the plans, got my card and left.

Oh, I don't disbelieve you. Like I said the UK is very lax about this sort of stuf in-store. It does not surprise me in the least.

Originally Posted by Pete6

I think this rather depends on where you call home and where you travel to.

Within Europe we are somewhat protected by EC regulations and travel charges are quite cheap.

O2 want 6 pounds / Mb when I go to the US even though I pay for the International option and AT&T want $2 / Mb in the US because I don't have a plan over there.

1mb can get you a lot of bbms and text emails when abroad. I really think a blackberry is the best way to keep in touch when abroad. The bbm also let's you choose the size of the photo you want to send before you send it, very useful feature with the newer models cameras improving.

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