[bballcoach123]

I am going abroad to Lithuania in the next couple of days and I am taking my blackberry which I am new to. A few questions I have:

1. Does it cost to use blackberry messenger?
2. I always use twitter and facebook, what effect will this have on data?
3. Im assuming if I turn data services off whilst roaming this will prevent me recieving emails?

It would be good to here everyones experience whilst going abroad.

[Branta]

I am going abroad to Lithuania in the next couple of days and I am taking my blackberry which I am new to. A few questions I have:

1. Does it cost to use blackberry messenger?
2. I always use twitter and facebook, what effect will this have on data?
3. Im assuming if I turn data services off whilst roaming this will prevent me recieving emails?

It would be good to here everyones experience whilst going abroad.

1. Yes, it will be billed as roaming data. If you're on Orange/UK I think it will come on the "within EEC" rate but I'm not certain. BBM is usually not a heavy load on data, the messages are short and efficient and it is pushed from the server so it is only active when you send or receive.

2. It will hurt, you could easily do several megabytes in a day if you have many contacts. These are relatively inefficient polling services, so your phone connects at intervals to check the server. (Compare with push, where the server initiates the call to your phone only when it has traffic for you)

3. Yes, email is a data service. If you turn off the data service on your phone's menu it will behave like a dumbphone with voice and SMS/MMS only.

[qbnkelt]

One tip - use your hotel's business/tourist centre, if possible, for Facebook. You can still send pics you've taken without killing your budget.

Other than emergencies, I don't look at my berry but for once a day to glance at email.

[srvac]

My family just went abroad and turned off the data on both of our BB's and primarily used SMS texting. We used the laptop in the hotel to check email and post pictures to facebook about once a day (like Qbnkelt just suggested).
When we returned and turned data back on, the emails and messages all came through on the phone, but we had already seen them on the computer.

One thing I didn't look into, which may be possible would be to temporarily set up filters to allow only a certain few to send you emails. A lot of my emails are really things I could live without.

[stevobbm]

My advise when roaming, turn data off. When you see wifi available, turn back on and receive emails and stuff. I'm on o2, they have a roaming data bolt on that has a limit per day, check your provider. Bbm uses very little data. The most important thing in my experience was to remember to toggle the data on and off regularly, when needed.
Hope this helps.
Steven.

Posted via CB10

[rjpawlak]

If you're on a t-mobile simple choice plan, you don't have to turn data off when you go to Lithuania. Although you may want to switch to Edge (I'm unclear on this last, since I've yet to travel internationally since t-mo implemented free global roaming).

Bob

Posted via CB10