[sinktip]

I got a 9530 a couple of months ago on Telus without a data plan. I'm now getting ready to sign up for data.
I will be tethering (working from my boat) and I am wondering how much data usage to plan for.
I will mostly be using the device for email, web page uploads, checking web based reports, and surfing the web doing marketing research (not video or image research - ).
Would a 500MB plan be enough?

Grant
White Rock, BC

[adamv7010]

most likely so...why not get tetherberry? or tether..whatever they call it now...its on sale for 20 bucks right now...you can then tether for "free" minus the 20 charge for the software...that way its not a one time thing...

[djm1947]

most likely so...why not get tetherberry? or tether..whatever they call it now...its on sale for 20 bucks right now...you can then tether for "free" minus the 20 charge for the software...that way its not a one time thing...

I don't think that is correct because the OP said he does not have a data plan. I think you are confusing the tether plan with the data plan.

The 500mb may not be enough if you will be using it a significant amount. For example, will a lot of your email have attachments?

[my_2_cents]

I am a Telus customer, and I can tell you that your best option is to get tether (used to be called tetherberry). I have used the trial version and it worked flawlessly. The speeds weren't amazing, but plenty for web browsing. You will need to get an unlimited data plan though. You would use 500MB in a couple of hours of simple web browsing on a computer. It is alot more data intensive than the BB itself.

One thing to keep in mind is that I don't think Telus has unlimited plans for new data customers anymore, I think the biggest is 5GB. You might have to watch your data usage, however you can monitor that daily on their website. I am lucky enough to have been a customer for many years, I still have my unlimited data plan from before the changes.

[sinktip]

Thanks for the info.
I just signed up for the cheapest data plan I could find at 500mb to try it out. I will grab Tether later today. I can go to 1gb for an extra $5 per month so I plan to keep a close eye on usage in the mean time.

[prez87]

Just to confirm, I have an unlimited data plan for my 9530, if I purchase Tether/tetherberry then I will be able to connect my laptop to my blackberry and use its internet without getting charged?

I have tethered in the past, for about 5 minutes, and I ended up getting billed $8 for it. Please confirm that Tether will not allow this to happen.

Thanks.

[sinktip]

I downloaded and installed the trial of Tether today. It installed and ran on the blackberry and the laptop with no problems at all.

I have images turned off in my web browser (makes the pages look way different) to save data and everything works well. Speed seems similar to my high speed shaw cable at home but I have not done a speed test yet
So far I have been online for an hour or so and sent about .6mb and recieved 2.4mb. Tether makes it really easy to monitor monthly and daily usage from the GUI. I will compare tether with telus later to confirm that the data numbers stay the same.

Right now I am sitting in my van right in front of the Pacific Ocean with my BB on the dash and my laptop on my lap. This is going to be awesome this summer. I will have to make sure I post pics of my boat office on Facebook in July when all my buddies are sitting in their cubicals under the fluorescent lights...

[DaHonga]

So I saw this on the Blackberry smart phone data add-on under the fine print.

"Additional usage will be charged at $0.05/MB. Cannot combine with any other data plan. Tethering included. Additional data is charged by the MB or GB and is rounded up to the closest KB (1 GB =1,024 MB; 1 MB = 1,024 KB). Data usage is subject to a monthly overage limit of 10 GB."

So I thought tethering was free and I then used desktop manager to connect to the internet. Now i'm facing $200 in data usage. Does anybody know anything about this and is it possible to dispute the charges?

[graspDESIGN]

Tethering and data usage are two different things that are being confused in this thread.

Data usage is the amount of data you are paying for to be able to use though your carriers. Whether its a set amount (i.e. 500MB or Unlimited) you pay your carriers to use this data on your BB.

Tethering is the action of connecting your BB to your computer, which then USES your data plan on your BB to render websites or access email ON your computer.

So, DATA USAGE is the important thing to worry about. This is what you pay for or are charged overage for if not on an unlimited data plan. Whether you go over directly using data on your BB, or if you go over while tethered to your computer, you still go over. Even if tethering is INCLUDED with your carrier, that DOES NOT mean that you can use as much data as you want while tethered if you arent on an unlimited plan. It just means that you dont have to pay an extra monthly fee through your carrier to be able to use this option.