[Tantjane]

Hello, first post on here, never had a BB before.

Contract is up for renewal - am currently with Virgin, who are now offering the Blackberry 8520.

Couple of questions, please:

Am I right in thinking that unlimited data isn't the same as push email? (spot the newbie, eh?!)

On that topic, does Virgin support push email? I read on one of the similar threads found when I started this one (NICE feature of this forum, not seen that on others I've been on!) that it doesn't - or rather didn't when that post was written in Sep 2009. Is that likely to have changed?

The deal I'm interested with on Virgin is:

free phone
400 any network minutes
unlimited texts
unlimited data

for £25.

Or I'm toying with 600 minutes for £30, possibly.

Looking around, it seems like this is a good deal, but is there anything I should know or query or push for with Virgin before I launch myself headlong into a 24m contract (I know contract renegotiation is the time to ask for better than it says on the advertised packages, after all!)?

Thank you in advance.

[youagain]

Any carier which offers a blackberry has to offer a BIS subscription so yes Virgin Mobile will let you have push email to the device. It has unlimited data for web and Blackberry so you should not recieve any charges for browsing and using apps which use your normal gprs service. e.g opera mini and twitter apps which don't access data which rely on your network data provision rather than that of RIM.

If you were looking to buy a blackberry outright and get a sim only plan, Virgin dont offer a Blackberry addon for those plans so you wont get push email. Blackberry data addons for sim only plans are only available from Vodafone, T-Mobile and o2.

I'd toy around with the idea of buying the Blackberry (around £150-£180 on ebay and getting o2 which gets you 700mins and 1400 texts as well as unlimited blackberry data and 200mb normal gprs for £20. After the 31st of Jan it becomes 600mins and 1200 texts. It's a 30 day only plan too so no long contract to commit too. Works out as being more cost effective and better value for money. A £30 contract over 24 months = £720. A blackberry off ebay (approx £180 max) plus a 24 month o2 simplicity @ £20p/m plan = £660.

O2 allows you to have blackberry bolt ons for free on plans worth £20+. On orange you can add it to any pay monthly contract for £5. You could get 200 mins and ulimited texts plus blackberry addon at £15 but its a 18mnth contract.

[Tantjane]

Thank you very much indeed for your detailed reply.

I think I'll wait and see what Virgin say - but it's very useful to have that comparison price to see how much they want to keep me

[Misschars]

Thank you very much indeed for your detailed reply.

I think I'll wait and see what Virgin say - but it's very useful to have that comparison price to see how much they want to keep me

I don't know if this is relevant, but I recently brought a blackberry 8520 on pay as you go (orange). I'm on virgin mobile sim only which doesn't have a contract. I'm using my sim card in my blackberry phone, I brought the phone from carphone warehouse, which meant my phone was open on all network. I was told to call virgin mobile to get my registation set up for BIS.
My sim deal is 600mins, unlimited virgin-to-virgin calls, 3000 text, unlimited web access for £22 per month. So if ur thinking of not going on contract, think about sim only.

Hope this will help with ur decision.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com