Please help me understand - BB abroad

I am going to Israel soon and here is where I'm at.

My 9700 is unlocked and obviously I want to have a 'fully functional' BB everywhere I go, including outside the U.S., but the fact of the matter is it is more of a "want" rather than "need". Sure, it could help, but it does not justify the (outrageous in my opinion) rates that AT&T charges.
I checked with the two major cell providers in Israel - you can only add BB service to a standard line, not a 'chargeable' type number (like AT&T's GO).

So apparently I will not have OTA access to BB services. I am not 100% sure how this thing works.

1. Say I use my AT&T card just for phone service - in order to prevent data usage, do I just turn 'Data Services' OFF and that should be it? Will I be able to make/receive calls normally? (I am aware the per-call charge is high, but at least I won't be charged for emails).
Can I leave it ON and just turn 'While Roaming' OFF...? Will this be enough to prevent BB Service while outside the U.S.?

2. BTW - the BB-logo-like icon, between the 3G and the Cell bar, is that the Data icon? It goes off when I switch 'Data Services' OFF. When 'Data' is off I still have the 3G icon on.

3. What happens if I use a local SIM card? Do I still need to turn 'Data' OFF, or will the BB know that that specific SIM card does not have BB services?

4. How does WiFi get in the picture? Can you get BB services via WiFi (when I am not on the road, but in a WiFi range), and if so - how do I tell the BB to use WiFi only and not OTA? I read that the BB will always use WiFi as first priority, but I noticed several times that when I at home and WiFi is on, sometimes the browser will use the 3G network and not the WiFi.

Sorry for the long post. I just want to make sure I take full advantage of my BB without the need of a second mortgage when I return to cover the AT&T bill.

Thanks in advance.

1. Yes turn off data services for phone use only.

2. the 3G/2G indicator is independant of data versus voice. even with data off. with data off my 9700 littel white triangle turns red beside the name of the carrier. I assume this is a visual indicator that data services are off.

3. it depends, while i have travelled to europe with an unlocked BB I was able to buy a pre-paid SIM card for BB. Just go to a mobile phone shop in Israel, I will bet there are SIM cards. Mine I bought like a $20 pre-paid card and it lasted me all 4 days I was in Europe. (I had email, browsing, phone. Although I didn't call home on my BB i used skype to call home)

4. Yes if you can hook up your BB to wi-fi it will use the wi-fi channel for data. It should browse also. To be absolutely certain, sometimes I will turn off mobile network when i use wi-fi data when roaming. then for sure everything is going out the wi-fi channel. (Of course the phone won't ring with mobile network off)

Good luck, I hope this helps

Thanks for your reply.

Originally Posted by crazy canuck

2. the 3G/2G indicator is independant of data versus voice. even with data off. with data off my 9700 littel white triangle turns red beside the name of the carrier. I assume this is a visual indicator that data services are off.

So 3G has nothing to do with Data, it is just for Voice?

Originally Posted by crazy canuck

3. it depends, while i have travelled to europe with an unlocked BB I was able to buy a pre-paid SIM card for BB. Just go to a mobile phone shop in Israel, I will bet there are SIM cards. Mine I bought like a $20 pre-paid card and it lasted me all 4 days I was in Europe. (I had email, browsing, phone. Although I didn't call home on my BB i used skype to call home)

They do have pre-paid SIM cards, but both networks told me that BB service cannot be used with their pre-paid cards.

Originally Posted by crazy canuck

4. Yes if you can hook up your BB to wi-fi it will use the wi-fi channel for data. It should browse also. To be absolutely certain, sometimes I will turn off mobile network when i use wi-fi data when roaming. then for sure everything is going out the wi-fi channel. (Of course the phone won't ring with mobile network off)

If WiFi is on and I shut down 'Mobile Network', will it not shut down WiFi as well?!

That's right.

In the radios icon (looks like an antenna), if you uncheck the mobile network, that radio turns off. The other radios, wi-fi and bluetooth, could still be on and functioning.

By turning just the mobile network off only, your wifi should still work.

Thanks.

1. Does BB service (BBM, email) work off WiFi as well, just OTA?

2. What about if I use local SIM? Obviously it will not have BB service, but do I still have to be worried about shutting 'Data Services' OFF, or 'Data Services' will not be working anyways?

My husband went to Saudi Arabia for a year. His phone was with T-Mobile and unlocked before he left (for free by them). We were misinformed that international data for $20 a month would include unlimited email and data. It didn't and only included email access. We got a $650 phone bill for that first month.

He ended up getting a Saudi sim card and having a month to month contract that he could cancel whenever he liked. It will vary from country to country, but almost everywhere will require a contract to have BB data (if you want it of course).

Do NOT do what my husband did and lose the ATT sim card. Some local got a hold of his T-Mobile and ran up a $1300 phone bill which we didn't know about until it was too late. We had to pay every penny and are still fighting with Saudi Air Force officials to bring about charges on the dude who stole it (yes we found out who he was through T-Mobile detective work).

I would turn off everything that pulls data (facebook, berry weather, twitter, etc) so it won't try to pulls anything if you use the sim card. I would also turn off voicemail as that will also ding you every time someone leaves a message. I know ours was charging $1.99 for every call that went to voicemail. Crazy.

Good luck with your travels and phone issues!

Originally Posted by sbi

Thanks.

1. Does BB service (BBM, email) work off WiFi as well, just OTA?

2. What about if I use local SIM? Obviously it will not have BB service, but do I still have to be worried about shutting 'Data Services' OFF, or 'Data Services' will not be working anyways?

1: Yes, those services will work over wifi. You can test this out at home by turning off your data connection and running the device solely on wifi.

2: You will need to have data services on in order to use data on the local carriers network. If you have a local sim card in your phone, you won't have to worry about roaming charges. But as you already stated, you won't be able to get pre-paid Blackberry data in the country you are visiting. A regular (non-Blackberry) data plan won't do you much good, so I wouldn't bother.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Maybe someone in Israel could get that guy in the Saudi AF.
I would not hold my breath waiting for local justice against a local.

I too got stung by thinking TMo's international service included data. Also for about $650 for a month.

B B

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

In India major carriers like AirTel and VodaFoneIN provide Pre-Paid BB services...
But only emails and IM no data services (browsing, downloading stuffs)
.
They have 3-4 BB plans on post-paid (or billing).
You can get their sim cards on airport or at carrier's gallery.


Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

I am on ATT and I just was roaming in Vietnam about 3 weeks ago. I brought my 9700 with me to stay in touch. Before I left, I called ATT and asked for the unlock code, which they gave me no problem. Then I got the world traveler plan, $6 a month and it cut my roaming rates from $5 to $2 per min. I turned data roaming off, location aiding off while roaming in the GPS menu, and download of voicemail while roaming off. When I was in country, I used wifi for all of my data services. Wifi icon is usually grey when not connected to anything, and turns white when you connect to BIS, which I could do through wifi for free and access everything through that, email, bbm, instant messaging, Internet, etc. I usually left the wireless network off. When making a call, all you have to do is make sure that +1 is in front of your number. When ever you get an incoming call on your phone in the states or abroad, it will be in this format so if you save them like it it saves you the trouble, and it doesn't make a difference when you come back.

Be careful using a local sim card. I did and it disconnected my phone from blackberry internet service. So it would no longer connect to the BIS servers through wifi and the icon would stay grey. You can use the hotspot browsers to access the internet, but you will be surprised how many websites prevent you from accessing their sites from outside of the US. When you are using BIS, you get around it because they see the request as coming from the BB server farm somewhere in the Midwest. Anyways, being disconnected from BIS cripples your phone and you can't use any of your apps, because the vast majority of them require BIS to connect, and not just a standard wifi connection.

Knowing all of this, call ATT and get everything setup on your phone and speak with them about the charges involved with international roaming. It is surprisingly easy to roam on your ATT sim card, just prohibitively expensive. It connects as fast as it would in the US and I had 3G service in Vietnam of all places.