[pgodden]

Well, I absolutely love my new phone but I am real concerned about the extra data usage. It's fine here in Canada as I have a 6 gig plan, but traveling to Europe will cost me a fortune. Generally i used to use about 80 mb a month with my 9810 but first few weeks with the z10 was 900 Meg. Given the new user extra usage and even if I take of 25 percent of the data I am still looking at 600 Meg, that will cost a fortune when traveling which I do every couple months.

I am not sure what to do, I guess I can turn of data when roaming, makes it kind of silly I guess but I am open to any other suggestions. I dont think I want to do the sim card thing that is rough. Any suggestions to get the data down? Right now, I am heading to UK., belgium and Holland in May then the us in June then again in July.



Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

Well...

1) get an international data plan
2) change the sim to a local sim when you travel
3) use wifi only
4) don't use data.

I don't know of any other options and since you've said option 4 and 2 aren't ideal not sure what solutions you've got left. Perhaps #1 is the only way to go via your carrier. I use Rogers and know they don't provide the most economical international options.



Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[SaltyBrine]

Depending on your carrier I would check to see if they have a global data roaming plan that you can select and have them set it up so that way your usage is prepared. It can mitigate the cost.

Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

I couldn't edit my original post:
Edit: you can try Calling Rogers but whenever I've travelled it hasn't been worth it. I've opted to get pre paid sim cards which give data use and also paid hotels etc for wifi access.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[pgodden]

I am with bell and will have to ask them, but seems to me that even going to the US they charge me a fee and then a buck a megabyte for usage even though that is huge usage. I just realized that most of my usage has been with wife at home and the office. Holy cow this thing is a data pig for sure, I haven't done by playing with the phone away from the two wife networks so that is high

Posted via CB10

[pgodden]

I couldn't edit my original post:
Edit: you can try Calling Rogers but whenever I've travelled it hasn't been worth it. I've opted to get pre paid sim cards which give data use and also paid hotels etc for wifi access.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

With the 9810 it wasn't an issue, it cost a few bucks but nothing out of control. If I get a prepaid sim, not that I would know how to get one, then BBM and email and everything wouldn't work without messing with all the settings correct? I guess I may have been better of sticking with the old phone :-(




Posted via CB10

[Roscoe T Zern]

what is best way to monitor data usage on bb z10? ap for that or?

[pgodden]

what is best way to monitor data usage on bb z10? ap for that or?

I don't know but that would be helpful, I got my usage of my bill today from bell

Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

With the 9810 it wasn't an issue, it cost a few bucks but nothing out of control. If I get a prepaid sim, not that I would know how to get one, then BBM and email and everything wouldn't work without messing with all the settings correct? I guess I may have been better of sticking with the old phone :-(
0

Yup I had a shock after getting my first bill. Never went over 100 megs with my torch and now 800+ is average. Gone are the days of compressed data with the z10.

Getting an international sim wouldn't be too difficult. It would cost you a few bucks to get the device unlocked. CrackBerrydotCom actually has a service for that. Then as you travel you could drop into a European provider such as Vodafone etc and purchase a prepaid sim which would also give you a local number.

My choice would be this option, it may cost $50 to unlock and say another $50 to get a new sim and some minutes. But for the distance you are traveling and length of time, I'd rather this than trying to anticipate what my bill could be.

As for the emails etc, I could be wrong but from memory, all emails etc should work fine with a new sim.



Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[edsam]

I'm in similar situation. Since getting Z10, I had my 9810 unlocked. I would switch back to the old 9810 when I travel. If the destination country has local sim card, I would switch between my sim from Canada and local. If no local sim is available, I would get a roaming plan. Turn on data only when I need it. Roaming with Z10 even on a roaming plan is not recommended.

Posted via CB10

[pgodden]

Yup I had a shock after getting my first bill. Never went over 100 megs with my torch and now 800+ is average. Gone are the days of compressed data with the z10.

Getting an international sim wouldn't be too difficult. It would cost you a few bucks to get the device unlocked. CrackBerrydotCom actually has a service for that. Then as you travel you could drop into a European provider such as Vodafone etc and purchase a prepaid sim which would also give you a local number.

My choice would be this option, it may cost $50 to unlock and say another $50 to get a new sim and some minutes. But for the distance you are traveling and length of time, I'd rather this than trying to anticipate what my bill could be.

As for the emails etc, I could be wrong but from memory, all emails etc should work fine with a new sim.



Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

I will research this a bit, that would be the key.. the data stuff.. pointless if you can't get BBM and emails to work without major resetting every trip. I can probably call forward the phone calls....


Posted via CB10

[pgodden]

Is there anyway to track which programs are using the data on the Z10? I wouldn't mind knowing what is using all the data...



Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

I'm in similar situation. Since getting Z10, I had my 9810 unlocked. I would switch back to the old 9810 when I travel. If the destination country has local sim card, I would switch between my sim from Canada and local. If no local sim is available, I would get a roaming plan. Turn on data only when I need it. Roaming with Z10 even on a roaming plan is not recommended.

Posted via CB10

D'oh! Forgot about this. Yes I would totally do this first if my old Torch didn't konk out on me.


Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[bintheredundat]

Is there anyway to track which programs are using the data on the Z10? I wouldn't mind knowing what is using all the data...



Posted via CB10

Sorry don't know of any apps that will track individual data usage per program.... definitely a need for it as users roll over from older devices and no longer have compression.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[pgodden]

D'oh! Forgot about this. Yes I would totally do this first if my old Torch didn't konk out on me.


Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

I have an old torch still, I wonder if I can switch the sim card back and forth between the Z10 and the touch. I am trying to weigh my options, I guess I could also turn it ( the tourch) on with another plan and use it for data somehow. Hard to get my head around how that would work. In a perfect world J would be able to switch back and forth...


Posted via CB10

[pgodden]

Sorry don't know of any apps that will track individual data usage per program.... definitely a need for it as users roll over from older devices and no longer have compression.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

That would be an app worth getting

Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

I have an old torch still, I wonder if I can switch the sim card back and forth between the Z10 and the touch. I am trying to weigh my options, I guess I could also turn it ( the tourch) on with another plan and use it for data somehow. Hard to get my head around how that would work. In a perfect world J would be able to switch back and forth...


Posted via CB10

Unfortunately the sim cards are diff sizes and so can't be transferred back and forth. This couldn't be any easier for u eh

Thinking out loud here... you could unlock the torch ( since it seems like it's cheaper to do the torch than the z). This can be done online in a few hours or so.

Then you could go in and grab any sim from providers when you travel, insert the sim and be off to the races. If I'm thinking correctly here the advantage with this solution is that it should work out cheaper as the data should be compressed and thus you wouldn't need a 3 gig plan. I just looked at Vodafone UK and it's like $10 cdn or so for500 megs. Just goes to show how we get robbed here in Canada. Here's a quick link. I wouldn't worry about the process to much. This is very common place in Europe and you can walk in and get setup within minutes.

https://forums.crackberry.com/e?link...token=PrvdnJwB


Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[bintheredundat]

If you throw a new international sim into the torch. You should be able to activate your email accounts and then you'll be up and running. If you didn't wipe it your bbm contacts would be on there still and thus those would work as well.


Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[pgodden]

Sounds like growth ideas, I did qip the tourch but I could get the BBM contacts back easy enough. The true question now, do I do the international sim or use a roaming plan on bell on the torch. I guess I could call forward my phone number to the new phone s well


Posted via CB10

[bintheredundat]

Sounds like growth ideas, I did qip the tourch but I could get the BBM contacts back easy enough. The true question now, do I do the international sim or use a roaming plan on bell on the torch. I guess I could call forward my phone number to the new phone s well


Posted via CB10

Yup def a personal decision. Looks like bell mobility zone 1 package for international travel is $50/mth. For a measly 50 min of call time and 25 megs of data.

So I'd be inclined to go with an international sim. Again just my two cents

Call forwarding will cost you on the bell side as you would be directing your number here to a long distance number. Thus long distances charges on the bell account and then local minute use on the foreign sim account.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

[pgodden]

Yup def a personal decision. Looks like bell mobility zone 1 package for international travel is $50/mth. For a measly 50 min of call time and 25 megs of data.

So I'd be inclined to go with an international sim. Again just my two cents

Call forwarding will cost you on the bell side as you would be directing your number here to a long distance number. Thus long distances charges on the bell account and then local minute use on the foreign sim account.

Posted via CB10 on my Z10 Oreo

Well if I take an old torch, put a bell plan on it, as it uses compression, then call forward my calls to that local number it may work. Then 25 Meg may be enough, although maybe a bit light. At the office I have an extra phone plan I could change to a basic plan then add the international plan. That may not work either, does the compression work only on a bis server for email?

If I go with the international sim, I would need call forwarding which to the states would be Ok but Europe would be another story.



Posted via CB10

[wmwwa]

Well if I take an old torch, put a bell plan on it, as it uses compression, then call forward my calls to that local number it may work. Then 25 Meg may be enough, although maybe a bit light. At the office I have an extra phone plan I could change to a basic plan then add the international plan. That may not work either, does the compression work only on a bis server for email?

If I go with the international sim, I would need call forwarding which to the states would be Ok but Europe would be another story.

Just back from 11 days in Auckland NZ. Unlocked in the US Rogers 100-3, local NZ 2 Degrees Mobile sim had apn grayed out, could not edit, no data, so disappointed. Unbelievable, waiting for dinner the second evening I spotted a nano sim just lying on the floor. Used my wife's manicure scissors to fashion an adaptor, inserted into the phone, recognized the network, opened the browser, hit a bookmark, instant connection, data worked!!! Received a text, only $1 left on the card so I sent a text to my wife's 9860 (9860 on 2 Degrees Mobile) to get the phone number for the Telcom sim, created an account online using my PlayBook on wifi, bought a combo pack (500mb data) and enjoyed the Z10 for rest of the trip! (Apn not grayed out, could have edited it but wasn't necessary. ) Another kick, I'd installed Opera mini 4.2 prior to leaving for NZ to take advantage of Opera's data compression. Used wifi in the hotel with the BlackBerry browser and Opera mini out and about. Didn't go over 200mb on the sim, could have used the BlackBerry browser more... No, not the full Z10 experience, but the full Z10 phone when I needed it. Anyway, true experience, good for a chuckle or two!

Posted via CB10

[Roscoe T Zern]

When I travel overseas my options are:

- BBz10 option - AT&T International data plan 800 MB = $120 usd.
- Take unlocked Samsung SII option - get foreign sim + data = $75 (card + Data)/ Country visited

Not a huge difference in cost with either approach unless you are visiting multiple countries. Then sim purchase adds up.

However, the same issue still stands that without data monitoring ability on BBz10 the risk of data overrun still exists. AT&T now notifies you via SMS when you blow your limit but there is still some risk and you will have to buy more data.

[LunchAt1]

I'm currently in Italy with an unlocked Rogers z10. $20 to unlock and 15 euro for a TIM sim card in the Termini station in Rome gets you 100 minutes to anywhere in Italy, 100 SMS texts, and unlimited data for 1 week + 5 euro credit. 5 euro/week after the first week. The unlimited data isn't really unlimited: it's full speed for the first 500MB and then drops to dialup speed (32kb/s if I remember correctly) until the next week. Calls to Canada are 0.20 euro/min.

TIM probably has better deals, but it wasn't worth my time to find out.

You will run into difficulties with email services such as Google when the email app first tries to access access to your account due to security, but the problem are fairly straight forward to solve.

Meteor SIMS (Ireland) have worked for me throughout Europe, but that was before the z10 and I have voice only on that SIM.

Posted via CB10

[pgodden]

I am leaning towards just turning data off, I am thinking I can use the data when I am in the room at night. I can't believe how expensive it is, and I don't think changing the sim card works for me. I need the phone so people can reach me, getting a local number doesn't solve the problem for me as I would have to call forward my Canadian number.


Posted via CB10