[lnichols]

it dsoesnt matter what the reason is... if they are forcing you to pa a fee that no other company is asking for then it is their responsibility. They cannot ask you to pay more for a service that you cannot deny.

Yep but they also don't have to let you use a device on their network! If you are out of contract switch, if not then they can do whatever they want.

[slick_cl]

I confirmed this with Bell today also. I live chatted with an agent and told her I wanted to keep my iPhone plan. She told me I had no choice but to change to a BB plan. I told her that all other carriers did not require a BB plan for the Z10. She then checked with her supervisors and came back to say that for Bell, a BB plan is required....

[Rickroller]

I pay $60 a month and I have a BB social plan. Apparently it was the cheapest plan I could get with a BB. That means no Data. Zip. For $60.

Wow! $60/month and NO data?! With Telus, i'm getting unlimited Nationwide calling, unlimited sms, and 6GB of data for $100. And at least with Telus, they're offering Anytime Upgrades, so you're not stuck in a contract waiting on the next big thing.

[grahamf]

Wow! $60/month and NO data?! With Telus, i'm getting unlimited Nationwide calling, unlimited sms, and 6GB of data for $100. And at least with Telus, they're offering Anytime Upgrades, so you're not stuck in a contract waiting on the next big thing.

On Koodo I've got unlimited nationwide calling, unlimited text & pictures, and *cough* 2GB of data for $56/mo

[eddy_berry]

Wow! $60/month and NO data?! With Telus, i'm getting unlimited Nationwide calling, unlimited sms, and 6GB of data for $100. And at least with Telus, they're offering Anytime Upgrades, so you're not stuck in a contract waiting on the next big thing.

Salt in the wound buddy. Salt in the wound. Yes Telus. Everyone I told this too said I should have told Bell to shove it and to go with Telus. Of course I couldn't at the time I was still in contract at the time with a dead phone they wouldn't give me a BB without paying a reduced cancellation fee. It was still expensive. I'm giving you a thanks for 2 reasons: 1 for giving me a good suggestion and another sarcastically for rubbing it in. So ya. Thanks. I will wait for a Q10 err 11... 12?

[Goint]

So I just talked to Bell about this today.
It isn't a "Blackberry" plan, it is just a smartphone plan with a minimum spend. It isn't a BIS plan, you don't get access to BIS, but you need to meet a threshold.
When I got my Z10 (I mean iPhone to everyone else on the planet, even if it is black) today, they said I was on an ineligible plan and I needed to spend at least $5 more per month to qualify. I asked if I wanted a GS3 would I have to go through the same switch and they said yes.
Key point: When they tried to activate my phone, it didn't work because I wasn't on an eligible plan. They had to switch my plan before it worked.

This isn't a problem with Blackberry, it is just Bell being Bell and Belling all over us.

[eddy_berry]

This isn't a problem with Blackberry, it is just Bell being Bell and Belling all over us.

Yes. This made me laugh. For some strange reason I pictured Bugs Bunny throwing a bell on top of my head and hitting it with a hammer. I got belled. He used to do it with a bucket but a BELL IS PAINFUL.

[Sporatic]

Bell has hard coded the blackberry.net APN in the APN settings on the Z10s, forcing you to use a BIS plan. Whereas, Rogers devices use ltemobile.apn so you can use the device on any smartphone plan.

If I bought a phone from another carrier that didn't have the APN hard coded, does that mean it would work?

Does that also mean that if you got the phone unlocked it would still not work on another carrier because of this apn setting?

[Concession]

Yeah, I signed a contract to get a z10 today and was forced to change to a blackberry plan on bell.

Now I gotta figure out how to sell that z10 (developer got a shiny red one coming )

[Vorkosigan]

Wow. I'm so glad we got rid of Bell for everything a few years ago. Whenever I have someone come to me at work with a phone problem I've started to ask them first if it's a Bell phone. If it is I pretty much know I'm going to end up sending them to Bell. They have the weirdest issues.

[cjcampbell]

WOW!!... and to think I was even considering Bell. I thought people had a hate on for Rogers for crying out loud. I just renegotiated my rate with Rogers, no contract to do so, and got $75 for unlimited North America talk and text, and 1G of data. I don't use tons of data so it works just fine for me. Also, with the Z10 I got, it wasn't really a contract, but more of a tab. If I cancel and move on, I just pay the remaining value of the phone and a $12 data disconnect fee... whatever that is. Still FAR better than the way it was done in the past.

[Dimitri.69]

Even tho Rogers is ****, thank god they do not have to put its customer threw this & get a " special" BIS plan for the Z10.

[7thedon7]

So if i buy an unlocked Z10 can i set the VPN settings to blackberry.net in order to browse without being charged(got unlimited BIS plan)?

[cdnynot]

And here I thought I was the only one with this problem from Bell. I went to buy a Z10 today, knowing that the Z10 didn't need any special carrier plans to work and wanting to keep my current plan which I have for another 19 month.

I thought I had a decent plan till I heard your guys carrier plans, now mine seems feeble... I'm paying $63 for Fab 10 (unlimited talk and text national anytime), 200 anytime local minutes, unlimited text/picture/video messaging, evening and weekends for free, and only 1G of internet. I've never gone over my 1G of data yet, came close once.

I REALLY wanted to purchase a Z10 today, but after talking to several Bell reps and them telling me I HAD to change my current plan to a lesser but more expensive plan, I told them it's not worth it and walked out of the store empty handed. But an aching heart really wants me to say yes and settle with their deal and get one.

[Nathan Mcmahon]

sad to say guy i picked up my z10 from virgin mobile yesterday the swore to me that i could keep my 6gb plan well it now the next day and i did some looking into why my data was not working and apparently the apn is locked to blackberry.net,i have yet to call them but if nothing happens i still have 2 days to return the phone sadly though i love it

[noangelx]

I have a small business plan and switched from 9900 to z10 yesterday with no plan changes. But it did come up though with the guy next to me, he ended up walking out with his old plan and his old iphone.

[Fubaz]

For clarification, it is Bell who is making us do this, and it is very simple. You just call them and ask them to put the proper provisioning on your sim card. It takes 5 minutes and everything is great. You do not need to switch plans.

And the APN Settings are on the sim, they are NOT hard coded in to the Z10's like someone mentioned above. So if you unlock it to use it on another network it will be fine.

[scooby103]

For clarification, it is Bell who is making us do this, and it is very simple. You just call them and ask them to put the proper provisioning on your sim card. It takes 5 minutes and everything is great. You do not need to switch plans.

And the APN Settings are on the sim, they are NOT hard coded in to the Z10's like someone mentioned above. So if you unlock it to use it on another network it will be fine.

You sir are wrong. I spent over 2 hours yesterday with Bell and spoke with their network team. The APN setting is the issue and it is hard coded into the phone. It has nothing to do with your SIM. However, if you are on a Smartphone plan (APN = pda.bell.ca) it will not work. You need to be on a blackberry plan as the APN is hard coded to that. Now, Bell could easily release a software update to unlock the APN settings on the Z10 (same thing Rogers has). As soon as they do that, everything will be fine.

[chriswong11]

I also spent hours on the phone with Bell technical support, and tried multiple people. They simply could not do it. Does anyone know if we unlock the device are we able to change the APN settings on the phone. If we get rid of the blacberry.net will it work? Mine is just greyed out. If it strictly software does that mean every carrier has there own build of the OS? What happen to doing updates straight from BlackBerry.

Conversation with Bell over chat:

Brian: That is a good question. As I've mentioned earlier, the blackberry data plans works in a different platform with Smart phone data plans.
Brian: Just imagine a Honda car engine worth 8kilos for example, to be replaced by a Ferrari car engine that weighs the same. Even if we're talking about a car engine, it still won't fit and even if it fits, it won't work.
Brian: This is the same with data plans. Even if we're talking about data features/plans. It still won't work even if its both 1GB or something.
you: Yes but Blackberry has specifically designed their new operating system so that consumers do not need access to the BIS (bb data). Allowing people to switch from android and iPhones. this is why I am frustrated.
Brian: I completely understand where you're coming from Chris but it is simply not compatible. It's part of the system limitations of Bell as of the moment.
Brian: Maybe in the future, it will not be like this and I hope so.
Brian: I understand. As of the moment Chris, it is not doable with Bell yet.

[Concession]

It makes me wonder if Bell is still giving RIM service money for BB10 phones like they do with OS7 and down?

If they do, RIM is going to be making a killing on Bell BB10 devices, which is good by me. Less money Bell gets the better

[ergosteur]

Really frustrated with this. I have 6GB data on my corp account with Bell. We received some Z10s for testing, so I took the Micro-SIM from my iPhone and put it in the Z10, only to find I couldn't change the APN settings. Called 3 different Bell people and they all say I need to switch to a BIS plan, or to a BES plan if I want to use it with BES10.
Wanted to make the switch back to BlackBerry myself but I'm not sacrificing my 6GB, no matter how good the phone is. I feel like RIM (or BlackBerry now, I guess) should be doing something about this. I wonder how many people were dissuaded from making the switch from Android/iPhone because of this.

Going to try installing BES10 to see if I can override the APN settings with my own service books...

[chriswong11]

Please let me know your findings. I am very interested to see if changing the APN settings will make it work.

[scooby103]

I also spent hours on the phone with Bell technical support, and tried multiple people. They simply could not do it. Does anyone know if we unlock the device are we able to change the APN settings on the phone. If we get rid of the blacberry.net will it work? Mine is just greyed out. If it strictly software does that mean every carrier has there own build of the OS? What happen to doing updates straight from BlackBerry.

Conversation with Bell over chat:

Correct. The problem is you can't change the APN as Bell has it hard coded. On other devices (like Android) you can add an APN. Bell needs to open this so you can put the pda.bell.ca APN.

[RubenDM]

Non bis only works on 4g models

[Lumute]

I got my Z10 yesterday and no changes for me where necessary all working just fine, I did have a BlackBerry before and I got the 6GB for $30 promo last time they released an iPhone (they do this with every iPhone release). I just logged on my account and this is what it shows: "6GB data Share for iPad-BBerry"

BTW, as soon as I confirmed it was working I went to speedtest and got this:


So, is this LTE? I never checked with my old 9860 but this seems pretty good to me...