1. smiffy121's Avatar
    Would be interested to know how much longer RIM intend to provide their BIS service before they withdraw it entirely.

    Any thoughts....?
    08-07-13 04:50 AM
  2. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    BIS will be around for quite some time.
    BB OS legacy devices are still being produced and even new ones are being created. These all need a BIS or BES connection to work.

    BB10 has not been widely adopted yet. Not everyone of the 70+ million BlackBerry users have switched yet, so they need to keep the servers up and running for quite some time.
    08-07-13 05:04 AM
  3. Speedygi's Avatar
    With the new BBOS phone coming out. I'd say BIS will stay at least two more or so years.

    Sent from my GT-N7105 using Mobile Nations mobile app
    08-07-13 05:10 AM
  4. MarsupilamiX's Avatar
    BIS will be around for quite some time.
    BB OS legacy devices are still being produced and even new ones are being created. These all need a BIS or BES connection to work.
    Not true, OS 7 device are usable and useful without BIS or BES.

    Posted via CB10
    08-07-13 05:17 AM
  5. monil11's Avatar
    Not true, OS 7 device are usable and useful without BIS or BES.

    Posted via CB10
    Not true, atleast in most places. If it were the case, we would have heard a lot about it when BBOS7 was about to release. Anyway, on my 9900 (a BB7 device) BBM, Email and App wont work without BIS or BES. I guess that only leaves the browser and other apps that can function without BIS or BES. I have tried this in Canada, USA, India, UAE and Kenya and its the same everywhere.

    Any way I think BIS will exist till there are only about 3 - 5 million active BIS users, at that point Blackberry could offer a neat upgrade plan and try to convert most of the remaining users to BB10 + or just remove restrictions that require BIS on older devices with some sort of a software update.
    08-07-13 06:45 AM
  6. web99's Avatar
    Would be interested to know how much longer RIM intend to provide their BIS service before they withdraw it entirely.

    Any thoughts....?
    I am thinking that as long as BBRY supports the legacy BBOS 7/6/5 devices, BIS will be around. So in my opinion, they will continue to support BIS for at least the next year or 2.


    Posted via CB10 from my spectacular Z10
    08-07-13 06:54 AM
  7. MarsupilamiX's Avatar
    Not true, atleast in most places. If it were the case, we would have heard a lot about it when BBOS7 was about to release. Anyway, on my 9900 (a BB7 device) BBM, Email and App wont work without BIS or BES. I guess that only leaves the browser and other apps that can function without BIS or BES. I have tried this in Canada, USA, India, UAE and Kenya and its the same everywhere.

    Any way I think BIS will exist till there are only about 3 - 5 million active BIS users, at that point Blackberry could offer a neat upgrade plan and try to convert most of the remaining users to BB10 + or just remove restrictions that require BIS on older devices with some sort of a software update.
    I live in Switzerland and my carrier was too dumb to upgrade my plan with a BIS option the first 2 ( or so) months after I bought a 9810.
    Of course BBM won't work, that is correct, but I got my mails, I could use the browser and "enough" apps, as they apparently didn't need BIS.
    WhatsApp for example even has an option to not use BIS in the settings.

    This also worked for me over Wifi in the countries I travelled to in that period of time.

    I do agree with your second statement though. Either the user base will be ridiculously low, so that keeping BIS would be useless anyway, or they push out an update to make BBOS devices completely functional without it.


    Posted via CB10
    Last edited by MarsupilamiX; 08-07-13 at 07:50 AM.
    08-07-13 07:27 AM
  8. ferre_kun's Avatar
    Don't worry, carriers will kill BIS one way or another. They got more profits without BIS.

    Posted via CB10
    Houshinto likes this.
    08-07-13 07:33 AM
  9. Dunt Dunt Dunt's Avatar
    BIS will be around for quite some time.
    BB OS legacy devices are still being produced and even new ones are being created. These all need a BIS or BES connection to work.

    BB10 has not been widely adopted yet. Not everyone of the 70+ million BlackBerry users have switched yet, so they need to keep the servers up and running for quite some time.
    Unless something drastic changes it will be YEARS before all 70 million BB users have switched.

    But the truth is BIS has been a huge advantage for BlackBerry in developing markets where data plans are very expensive. As long as these markets exist and there is a demand for a BIS enabled BlackBerry with special low cost monthly plans - BBRY will build BBOS devices. But markets all over the world are changing and they are maturing, as they do so users are finding BBOS devices "behind the times" just like users in more developed markets did years ago. So BIS days are number...
    08-07-13 07:51 AM
  10. Asdic Ping's Avatar
    I would expect BIS to be around for the foreseeable future. BIS has the advantage of data compression which a lot of users like because it saves on data charges, so they are reluctant to upgrade to BB10. I heard someone mention on another forum that their data consumption went up 10 fold switching from BIS to BB10.
    08-07-13 07:52 AM
  11. Speedygi's Avatar
    Unless something drastic changes it will be YEARS before all 70 million BB users have switched.

    But the truth is BIS has been a huge advantage for BlackBerry in developing markets where data plans are very expensive. As long as these markets exist and there is a demand for a BIS enabled BlackBerry with special low cost monthly plans - BBRY will build BBOS devices. But markets all over the world are changing and they are maturing, as they do so users are finding BBOS devices "behind the times" just like users in more developed markets did years ago. So BIS days are number...
    However, if no BBOS device ever gets released beyond this year, there's really no reason to keep BIS around for much longer.

    Sent from my GT-N7105 using Mobile Nations mobile app
    08-07-13 09:16 AM
  12. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    Not true, OS 7 device are usable and useful without BIS or BES.

    Posted via CB10
    Not true. Any BlackBerry created app will not function without BIS.

    Not true, atleast in most places. If it were the case, we would have heard a lot about it when BBOS7 was about to release. Anyway, on my 9900 (a BB7 device) BBM, Email and App wont work without BIS or BES. I guess that only leaves the browser and other apps that can function without BIS or BES. I have tried this in Canada, USA, India, UAE and Kenya and its the same everywhere.

    Any way I think BIS will exist till there are only about 3 - 5 million active BIS users, at that point Blackberry could offer a neat upgrade plan and try to convert most of the remaining users to BB10 + or just remove restrictions that require BIS on older devices with some sort of a software update.
    The BlackBerry browser will not work without a workaround (as described here: Enable BlackBerry Browser without BIS/BES | Blackberry Without BIS (you can survive but not live))

    I live in Switzerland and my carrier was too dumb to upgrade my plan with a BIS option the first 2 ( or so) months after I bought a 9810.
    Of course BBM won't work, that is correct, but I got my mails, I could use the browser and "enough" apps, as they apparently didn't need BIS.
    WhatsApp for example even has an option to not use BIS in the settings.
    This also worked for me over Wifi in the countries I travelled to in that period of time.
    I do agree with your second statement though. Either the user base will be ridiculously low, so that keeping BIS would be useless anyway, or they push out an update to make BBOS devices completely functional without it.

    Posted via CB10
    Every BlackBerry created app will be useless without either BIS or BES. Email relies on a BIS server to be delivered to your phone so however you got your emails is a mystery. Same applies to the browser, it connects to BIS to apply data compression.

    Unless something drastic changes it will be YEARS before all 70 million BB users have switched.

    But the truth is BIS has been a huge advantage for BlackBerry in developing markets where data plans are very expensive. As long as these markets exist and there is a demand for a BIS enabled BlackBerry with special low cost monthly plans - BBRY will build BBOS devices. But markets all over the world are changing and they are maturing, as they do so users are finding BBOS devices "behind the times" just like users in more developed markets did years ago. So BIS days are number...
    True, these markets will keep on existing for years to come. Not everyone will change and for those keeping their legacy device a BIS server will need to be up and running or it will be useless (in the broad sense of the word).

    I would expect BIS to be around for the foreseeable future. BIS has the advantage of data compression which a lot of users like because it saves on data charges, so they are reluctant to upgrade to BB10. I heard someone mention on another forum that their data consumption went up 10 fold switching from BIS to BB10.
    Data consumption will be handled by the browsers in the future (see Opera on mobile, see Evolution browser).

    However, if no BBOS device ever gets released beyond this year, there's really no reason to keep BIS around for much longer.
    Sent from my GT-N7105 using Mobile Nations mobile app
    One new BlackBerry 7 phone coming this year | CrackBerry.com
    New BB7 phone is set to be released this year.... without BIS or BES it's just a paperweight.
    08-07-13 03:01 PM
  13. MarsupilamiX's Avatar

    The BlackBerry browser will not work without a workaround (as described here: Enable BlackBerry Browser without BIS/BES | Blackberry Without BIS (you can survive but not live))

    Every BlackBerry created app will be useless without either BIS or BES. Email relies on a BIS server to be delivered to your phone so however you got your emails is a mystery. Same applies to the browser, it connects to BIS to apply data compression.

    New BB7 phone is set to be released this year.... without BIS or BES it's just a paperweight.
    I didn't use any BlackBerry created app back then, apart from the browser, and it worked flawlessly.

    Mails were delivered though the gmail app and WhatsApp worked for cross-platform messaging.

    There were others, but I bought the 9810 at launch, so I do not remember all of them, but it is wrong to say that the browser didn't work, and at least with OS7 BlackBerries aren't useless without BIS.

    I'll give you some links if you really can't find anything, but CB has a lot of topics saying that things like the browser and a number of apps are working under OS7 without BIS.

    Posted via CB10
    08-07-13 03:12 PM
  14. castano22's Avatar
    I wish you could use BIS for bb10. I loved using it and didn't even mind paying the $10 since my plan was so cheap. It's because of this I sometimes consider going back to bbOS

    Posted via CB10
    08-07-13 03:17 PM
  15. scorpiodsu's Avatar
    I think we willl need to see how much influence carriers have when it comes to BIS. It costs them a lot to provide this service and as they steer people away from old blackberry devices to newer ones and other platforms they can influence how much longer it lasts. I still think it will be a few years but they have and always treated BIS differently than other data plans and that's understandable. But now, even on prepaid service you have to pay extra for many plans to use BIS services while an iPhone or Android can use the same plan without the extra "access" fee. I also think it will depend on if blackberry can get their core services to function without BIS on the older devices. But I suspect BIS to be around for the forseeable future because of the number of devices still out there and the few new ones coming. Really no need to kill BIS anytime soon unless they want to force people off of it but that runs the risk of losing those users to other platforms.
    anon(1464249) likes this.
    08-07-13 03:22 PM
  16. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    I didn't use any BlackBerry created app back then, apart from the browser, and it worked flawlessly.

    Mails were delivered though the gmail app and WhatsApp worked for cross-platform messaging.

    There were others, but I bought the 9810 at launch, so I do not remember all of them, but it is wrong to say that the browser didn't work, and at least with OS7 BlackBerries aren't useless without BIS.

    I'll give you some links if you really can't find anything, but CB has a lot of topics saying that things like the browser and a number of apps are working under OS7 without BIS.

    Posted via CB10
    Of course, every third party app that needs a connection will work without a BIS plan. Just none of the BlackBerry apps will.
    The browser did however work with wifi but that was some time ago when there were in fact 2 browsers installed on every BlackBerry (a mobile browser using BIS and a wifi browser using wifi). This is no longer the case on BB7.

    I do agree that on BB7 the browser itself can be used without a BIS plan if your carrier's APN settings are filled in.
    But this wasn't the OP's question and we're derailing.

    BIS is needed for BBM/EMAIL/APPWORLD/FACEBOOK/TWITTER and any app created by BlackBerry. The browser needs BIS for data compression but in theory you can use your carrier's APN to browse the internet using the BlackBerry browser, using your alloted data plan (this is without compression).
    Last edited by wout000; 08-07-13 at 03:26 PM. Reason: spelling
    MarsupilamiX likes this.
    08-07-13 03:24 PM
  17. smiffy121's Avatar
    Even if Rim decide to keep BIS for the foreseeable future, it will be the Telcos that will have the greatest influence.
    For example BB (BIS) plans are few and far between here in Australia. This gives the consumer two options 1. Choose a plan that doesn't suit your needs and pay way more than other plans. 2. Move away from BIS and maybe BB altogether.
    08-07-13 05:24 PM
  18. Astro_Man's Avatar
    BIS will be around a long time. More than 50 million BBOS BlackBerry smartphones run on BIS every day, many on contract, with new ones being sold all the time on contract. Besides, BlackBerry has the noc and isn't just going to scrap it because BBOS haters on the net dictate that scrapping it would be best for everyone including the company.
    08-07-13 05:32 PM
  19. Speedygi's Avatar
    My guess is we have a new BB7 phone this year and then the BIS will have a life span of about 4 years give or take.

    Sent from my GT-N7105 using Mobile Nations mobile app
    08-08-13 12:48 AM
  20. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    BIS will be around a long time. More than 50 million BBOS BlackBerry smartphones run on BIS every day, many on contract, with new ones being sold all the time on contract. Besides, BlackBerry has the noc and isn't just going to scrap it because BBOS haters on the net dictate that scrapping it would be best for everyone including the company.
    Lol, well said, I am no longer worried about BIS, I know it will be around for longer then people think.
    08-08-13 03:25 AM
  21. belfastdispatcher's Avatar
    I think we willl need to see how much influence carriers have when it comes to BIS. It costs them a lot to provide this service and as they steer people away from old blackberry devices to newer ones and other platforms they can influence how much longer it lasts. I still think it will be a few years but they have and always treated BIS differently than other data plans and that's understandable. But now, even on prepaid service you have to pay extra for many plans to use BIS services while an iPhone or Android can use the same plan without the extra "access" fee. I also think it will depend on if blackberry can get their core services to function without BIS on the older devices. But I suspect BIS to be around for the forseeable future because of the number of devices still out there and the few new ones coming. Really no need to kill BIS anytime soon unless they want to force people off of it but that runs the risk of losing those users to other platforms.
    Yes it costs some carriers to provide the service but let's be honest here, carriers are making money out of it one way or another. The cost they pay to provide BIS is tiny and they easily recoup that, BIS people are more likely to roam with their phones and not use local SIMs when they get there.
    08-08-13 03:36 AM
  22. babaroga's Avatar
    Would be interested to know how much longer RIM intend to provide their BIS service before they withdraw it entirely.

    Any thoughts....?

    Don't worry about that - BIS/BES still making huge profit for both BB and carriers
    08-08-13 04:46 AM
  23. anon(1464249)'s Avatar
    Yes it costs some carriers to provide the service but let's be honest here, carriers are making money out of it one way or another. The cost they pay to provide BIS is tiny and they easily recoup that, BIS people are more likely to roam with their phones and not use local SIMs when they get there.
    +1 This.

    In Belgium (where i'm from) you can't get a subscription that doesn't include data. Blackberry users using BIS pay for an extra data allowance (the one that flows through BIS) so they'll probably never use the data that's included in their standard subscription. We're essentially paying for data we'll never use. Nice income for the carriers + the added benefit of compressed data traffic from BIS users on their network.
    08-08-13 06:14 AM
  24. babaroga's Avatar
    +1 This.

    In Belgium (where i'm from) you can't get a subscription that doesn't include data. Blackberry users using BIS pay for an extra data allowance (the one that flows through BIS) so they'll probably never use the data that's included in their standard subscription. We're essentially paying for data we'll never use. Nice income for the carriers + the added benefit of compressed data traffic from BIS users on their network.

    Don't know how it works elsewhere, but in my country (Croatia), BIS is cca EUR 13/month for unlimited data use (real unlimited, based on fair usage).
    BB Roaming service is cca EUR 16/month (unlimited, of course, as BIS).
    So, you choose some subscription and BB service if needed.
    Then you will have some data from your subscription (let's say 1GB) and unlimited BIS.
    That 1GB from subscription you use only from streaming application, as they can't use BB network.
    08-08-13 07:14 AM
  25. ferre_kun's Avatar
    Don't know about other country, but here where I live, almost all carriers network are sucks. Unstable signals, slow connections, etc. That is on legacy devices. Not on my zio. It's fast, until I used my FUP. Then it got slow as turtle. I can buy more band with, but it's expensive.

    Carriers make more money without BIS. They will make sure legacy devices owner to ditch their BlackBerry and move to other platform, or upgrade to OS10 that don't use BIS. One way or another.

    Posted via CB10
    08-08-13 12:00 PM
29 12

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