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US Blackberry International Free Data Roaming Plan
I am looking into purchasing a blackberry, however as I travel extensively within and out of the USA I would be looking for one which does not charge for international data roaming charges.
Does any provider have a plan which includes this?
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At&t offers one that includes unlimited international data. T-Mobile offers one that includes unlimited international email, but not international data (browser).
There is another thread going on this forum on international data that you should look at. Tmobile includes a little wap browsing. ATT and Verizon have some international data plans which gives give you 100 megs outside the US a month for roughly $140 a month.
T-Mobile. Let me just check my bill here . . .about $20.00 per month for unlimited international data roaming. On my BB, I can send and receive emails and use the fairly simple web browser to surf with no additional changes (jgsx - are you sure no data? I generally can get it).
Inbound/outbound calls are, of course, billed out outrageous rates (so I carry a sep phone and switch out SIMs for calls). But, that's for a separate thread.
I've never had a problem with T-Mo data roaming.
One nice thing (Mrs. does this) that T-Mo will do for you. She doesn't travel internationally that much. But, when she does, she calls up T-Mo and tells them to turn "on" the feature on a given date (day or two before int'l travel) and turn it off on a given date (day she returns). They gladly do it and have no problem with it. I guess they'd rather collect a part month fee then deal with a ticked-off-over-outrageous-international-data-roaming-rates-call from a customer.
T-Mobile. Let me just check my bill here . . .about $20.00 per month for unlimited international data roaming. On my BB, I can send and receive emails and use the fairly simple web browser to surf with no additional changes (jgsx - are you sure no data? I generally can get it).
Data is not included according to T-Mobile, but in actual practice they often do not know that you used data, or for whatever reason, do not charge for it.
With respect to post #4, I presume you mean $19 for a Blackberry plan plus $20 for international data.
You can tether and mask where you are going on most BES plans. The problem is that you can't mask the data consumption. When I had ATT's international blackberry, I used Shape Services IM program and IM'ed people in the States for free, but an IM's data consumption pattern is not very different from e-mail.
Tether a laptop and spend ten minutes doing ordinary surfing and e-mail and see what happens. Even worse, I once tethered in Canada to check my e-mail. I didn't think it would cost that much because I was being fast, had downloaded my mail a couple of hours earlier from a T-1 connection, and was going to be efficient (e-mail were headers only...). I left the notebook on and hit the showers. When I got out Microsoft pushed a service patch out.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Dubai Stu
With respect to post #4, I presume you mean $19 for a Blackberry plan plus $20 for international data.
You can tether and mask where you are going on most BES plans. The problem is that you can't mask the data consumption. When I had ATT's international blackberry, I used Shape Services IM program and IM'ed people in the States for free, but an IM's data consumption pattern is not very different from e-mail.
Tether a laptop and spend ten minutes doing ordinary surfing and e-mail and see what happens. Even worse, I once tethered in Canada to check my e-mail. I didn't think it would cost that much because I was being fast, had downloaded my mail a couple of hours earlier from a T-1 connection, and was going to be efficient (e-mail were headers only...). I left the notebook on and hit the showers. When I got out Microsoft pushed a service patch out.
That's exactly why I have all program's updates set to ask me first
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Verizon offers a world data plan on the 8830. It is $64.99/month, or $20 more than the regular US-only unlimited data plan. A nice feature of the plan is that you can switch between the international and domestic plans without resetting your contract term, so you really only need to pay the $65/mo when you're giong international, if your travel isn't all that regular (like me).
In the Verizon world the 8830 is the only device they have that has CDMA and GSM, so that's the only one you can get the international data plan on.
I wasn't aware that ATT or TMob offered a similar unlimited data plan for international roaming, though reading it here I am glad to see that they are doing so.
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Thanks for the responses guys.
Another question I have. I have read that AT&T/Cingular have in the past cancelled contracts when people have been using data on roaming for more than 40-50% of the time.
Are T-mobile and Verizon as strict or more lenient?
... AT&T/Cingular have in the past cancelled contracts when people have been using data on roaming for more than 40-50% of the time.
...
That may very well be true as they got big charges from roaming partners. Nevertheless this system is ridiculous as GPRS, EVDO and HSDPS are 2nd priority to voice calls, so they don't really lose system capacity.
Another question I have. I have read that AT&T/Cingular have in the past cancelled contracts when people have been using data on roaming for more than 40-50% of the time.
Well, thats more domestic roaming. International, they charge you for, or charge you for a roaming plan. I'd check t-mobile.com and see if they cover where you are most of the time.
I am looking into purchasing a blackberry, however as I travel extensively within and out of the USA I would be looking for one which does not charge for international data roaming charges.
Does any provider have a plan which includes this?
Thanks
OP - in which countries will you be using it?
I love my T-Mo BB Curve. It comes with wifi and I can browse and and get data when I am near a wifi connection. I have been experimenting with UMA which is a voip but it has been spotty in Korea. Others have reported it works very well in Europe. This is free.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by iwebslinger
OP - in which countries will you be using it?
I love my T-Mo BB Curve. It comes with wifi and I can browse and and get data when I am near a wifi connection. I have been experimenting with UMA which is a voip but it has been spotty in Korea. Others have reported it works very well in Europe. This is free.
99% of the time I fly between the following countries:
Canada, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and of course the United States.
The next step will be to manage to get a contract without an SSN. I have an American Bank account, Canadian SIN and could find an address around where I plan to get the contract. Though I'm going to try and go to a store.
I don't know how the sales people work in the US, but I know in all the other countries I have taken out contracts the salesman tends to do anything to finalize a deal.
Right now I'm leaning towards T-Mob. We'll see what happens next week.
Apply for an American Taxpayer ID. You can use it in place of a SSN on most credit apps. You'll have 0 credit and they'll want a deposit. Wait a couple of months after paying the bills and then crack for international roaming.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GVA
99% of the time I fly between the following countries:
Canada, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland and of course the United States.
The next step will be to manage to get a contract without an SSN. I have an American Bank account, Canadian SIN and could find an address around where I plan to get the contract. Though I'm going to try and go to a store.
I don't know how the sales people work in the US, but I know in all the other countries I have taken out contracts the salesman tends to do anything to finalize a deal.
Right now I'm leaning towards T-Mob. We'll see what happens next week.
With respect to post #4, I presume you mean $19 for a Blackberry plan plus $20 for international data.
Yup, that's right. I never really "count" the $19 Blackberry plan since that's what I need here in the US every day. The $20 international data is the "extra" for the international part of things. I guess you could say $39 for worldwide unlimited.
