I am seriously in the market for a BB curve, but have a question: What is the BES and is it necessary for normal use of the phone and E-mail? Sprint charges an extra $20/month for this, and that would be a deal breaker for me.
Thanks for your response(s)
BES is for used primarily by businesses to handle their corporate e-mail transmission on corporate devices. What you would be using for your personal use would be BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service) which would allow you to setup your personal e-mail (up to 10 different accounts) on your BB. BES is usually used with company provided BB's, as the company needs to invest in some pricy equipment for it to run properly...
There are third party providers of BES, hosted on their servers.
Most consumers will be fully satisfied with the alternate BIS service for email, messaging and third party data, but BES does offer additional features that some may find useful.
OK, I now understand that BES would not be necessary for me. Now, can anyone tell me a little more about BIS---Is it included with the OS or is it an add-on? Again, thanks for the reply(s)
It is a service from the phone company to allow your blackberry to receive email, surf the web, etc. It is like a modified data plan. You will want it.
BTW Look at the Blackberry 101 series on the front page. There is a whole article on BIS/BES and what they do. No need to repeat it here.
BIS is usually required by most carriers if you want a BB to run on their network, and to be honest you'll want to get it. Without it, you won't be able to recieve or send any e-mail, surf the browser, or use most of the BB's applications.
BIS is just a type of data plan the carrier will put you on. its not something physical that comes with the phone or you need to download. if you call your carrier and tell them you want a BIS data plan added to your account, they will do just that. then that will enable you to use unlimited blackberry data on your phone. as stated, BES is for businesses, BIS is for personal use.
