New Blackberry 8700 T-mobile User Needs Help
 

I got a new Blackberry two weeks ago. Kept voice with intl service on cell phone and was going to use the BB just for Email, so I wouldn't have to haul laptop all day. First week of travel in US and it worked great. Into Stansted on Maxjet. No service. Sat next to a T-Mobile hot spot and nothing. My laptop picked up the signal though. Got to Italy and nothing. I selected Vodaphone (no T-Mobile available) and got message "data connection denied" Got to Zurich. Nothing. In Germany now and can select T-Mobile D, which I did. Nothing. My phone is picking up T-Mobile and I'm able to use it. No such luck on the BB. I had our general counsel try to straighten this out last week and still no success. She spent 1 1/2 hrs on the phone and they finally assured her that T-Mobile everything should be working properly, but it isn't.

Tonight I tried to send an Email to T-Mobile on their web site. I spend a bit of time composing and then found that the "continue" button wasn't active and I couldn't send the message.

Should I be doing something to the unit to make it work in Europe? or has T-Mobile dropped the ball? I decided not to call until I get the the UK (tomorrow) because I don't want to spend 1 1/2 hours on the phone at .99 per minute roaming. I have UK sims so it will be cheaper when I hit London. I'm more than a little annoyed with this deal. I agreed to a new 2 yr contract to do the BB with the intl Email etc..

Am I the only one in the world who can't get a BB to work in Europe? What am I doing wrong?

I welcome all ideas. Many thanks.

I'm assuming that you activated international roaming?

Otherwise, I've found it helpful to reboot the BB when moving from country to country by removing and reinserting the battery.

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i have an older BB and had the same problem when i first tried it in Europe. TMo US data support fixed it in a couple minutes. no problems since. if it is already rovisioned correctly the reset as mentioned above may be all that is needed. i did that after they did the network changes on mine.

First of all; A wifi hotspot isn't going to help much, because the 8700 doesn't have WiFi.

It sounds to me like International roaming isn't enabled, it usually isn't on new accounts to prevent misuse and non-paying customers.

I'd give them a call and have them check that roaming is enabled.

As for calling them from abroad:

How Do I Call Customer Care While Traveling Abroad?

You can call Customer Care at +1-505-998-3793. When you call from your T-Mobile handset, you will not be charged for roaming airtime or long distance. However, additional charges, such as country connection fees, may still apply. Calls to this number made from any phone other than your T-Mobile handset will incur international long distance charges and may incur other additional charges.

Thanks all. FYI, I have rebooted by pulling battery each time to no avail. I'll be in London l.ater today and will call them. When our gen counsel called TMobile for me, she was told Intl was not enabled. They then supposedly did the enable. Still not working. I'll let you know what TMobile has to say today

They are pretty useless sometimes with this. Call yourself, and demand that they check it, and double check it. Then login to the website and see if Worldclass roaming is indeed enabled under the services screen.

Well, yes, usually but not always. It is the luck of the draw when you call. Like with the airlines if you get the wrong answer you might have to ask someone else, but in the case of TMo you dont have to keep calling you can just insist politely that they get you to someone who can help. With mine I got to a data person right away and he saw that while one thing had been set for international roaming it either wasnt set correctly or there was another thing in their database that had to be enabled for roaming. It will work if it is set right and as ScottC says, you need to just get them on the phone and insist that they fix it. But there isnt anything you can do that you arent already doing, it is the set up on their end.

I would tell the person who get that you are calling from Europe, it is an expensive call and you want to talk to someone in Blackberry data support immediately because there have already been attempts to resolve the problem that havent worked. The right person can probably fix it in under 3 minutes.

I think you need to add BlackBerry Unlimited International E-mail to your plan.

Why? You only add that if you don't want to pay for data roaming charges. If you don't mind some charges then any Blackberry data plan will be just fine.

Remember the differences between voice, data, and international roaming. THis gives you access to the different capabilities and it is easy for TMO to get the setting wrong. Make sure they are all activated voice- intl and data-international.

Then the amount you pay depends on the plan. Either you pay roaming on the per mb system, or you give them $20 per month and you get all the email you want, but still pay for general internet. This is different than Cingular, where the international plan includes unlimited data (including internet surfing and other data traffic)