Bell Mobility Tablet Plan and VOIP on BB10
In my quest to reduce monthly service fees, because I am now retired, I have opted for a Bell Mobility tablet plan and Fongo VOIP service. I have been using Fongo off and on for a few years with a regular voice/text/data plan on Bell and other carriers (or WiFi) and have found voice quality and service dependability to be excellent.
There are a number of other threads on this forum discussing Bell Mobility BlackBerry data issues, so I will try to not repeat all of the assessments/complaints/discussion, but only summarize my experience and working solution.
I have several off contract, unlocked phones, including Z10, Z30, Classic and iPhone 4. I want to be able to use a Bell or any other carrier SIM card in all my phones. My original Bell plan was tied to the Bell BlackBerry data service. Bell front line staff continue to state that a normal data type SIM card plan won't work in a BlackBerry....in fact one person said that data services are different for iPhone, Android and BB and you can't switch a SIM between phone types! My experience is that you cannot use a Bell BlackBerry plan SIM in an iPhone....voice and text work but not data. A "normal" data plan SIM will work in any phone.
I have since ignored the Bell "recommendations", and purchased a Bell SIM and tablet data plan ( from a Wireless Wave kiosk, where the guys even understood and had experience with my situation). The current Bell post paid tablet plan is tiered flex data, ($5 first 10 MB, add $15 for next 1 GB, and $35 up to 5 GB). I would have moved to a different carrier, however, Telus/Koodo don't offer this plan and Rogers doesn't provide coverage in some locations where I reside and travel. Incidentally, Bell tablet plans will allow texting and voice, on a pay as you go fee basis.
The only technical trick, when using a Bell Mobility normal data SIM in a BB10 device, is to change the default APN setting from "blackberry.net" to "pda.bell.ca". If you don't manually change the APN setting, data will not work. This seems to be a Bell thing for some reason.
If you are located in Canada, Fongo provides an excellent voice over internet protocol (VOIP) service at a low cost. There are also a number of other VOIP services available. You may find VOIP is not as dependable as carrier voice for your purposes. You are restricted to areas with a strong 3G service or WiFi. I find it takes a few more steps to answer a call on Fongo, such as the BB10 PIN unlock, if used. I make or receive few voice calls, for short duration, so I have never fully benefited from carrier voice plan minutes.
Anyway, I have reduced my monthly service fees from $80 to $23 (plus taxes)....more or less equivalent to current unlimited Canada wide voice/text, with 1 GB data.