Blackberry without a Data plan - Alternatives?

[007craft]

Hi. Just got my blackberry (pearl 8120) (rogers). Ive been researching and fiddling with it all day without a data plan and heres my conclusion.

- Internet web browsing now works for FREE, providing im connected to a WAP. I have one at home, and I set one up at work. Thats 95% of my day blanketed with free net access.
- From my understanding, its simply impossible to add email to your blackberry without a data plan. This is where my makeshift solution comes in. I made a hotmail account (xxxx@hotmail.com). I then set up my phone to recieve a text msg alert from hotmail everytime a new email arrives. Now I get free incoming txt with my plan. When my friend sends an email to me from his blackberry with data plan, to my xxxx@hotmail.com account, I get a txt msg 10 seconds later saying basically, I have mail. Since its txt msg, I get it even when out of wifi range. As soon as I recieve this mail, I log onto hotmail.com via my mobile phones free wifi web browser. From here I can read the email, and respond directly, free. The only hitch in my plan here appears to be that I think im being charged 5 cents per email alert from msn/rogers. I dont have my bill yet so im not sure, but I read something about that. Does any1 know of a free alert service?

Even with paying 5 cents an email, $10 would get me 200 emails, which is more then I would do in a month. It beats paying rogers $25+ a month for data plan.

So what I want to know is aside from blackberry messenger perhaps, what exactly would be the benifit of of me forking out $ for a data plan?

[goJays]

nice advice =) can't wait to unwrap my blackberry bold.

[coolspot]

So what I want to know is aside from blackberry messenger perhaps, what exactly would be the benifit of of me forking out $ for a data plan?

You're not exactly getting push e-mail nor non-WiFi wireless data coverage are you ;)

Don't be a poser... :cheesygri

If you want an organizer type phone, Nokia e71 is a much better choice.

[coriolis]

- Internet web browsing now works for FREE, providing im connected to a WAP. I have one at home, and I set one up at work. Thats 95% of my day blanketed with free net access.

I thought the same way, but then I realized something. When I'm around WiFi, I'm also around a computer. Why would I want to surf on my Bold if I have access to a computer? At school/home/work, there is WiFi, but there are also computers I can use, unless I'm in the crapper :lol: I have since of had the $30 Value Pack, and I use a considerable amount on the go, looking up locations of the nearest The Keg, or checking RFD for coupons. Also I have the WAP sites of my favorite blogs, so I have em in check. The assisted GPS helps considerably, it used to take a good 2-10 minutes to lock onto a satellite for positioning(not just on the Bold, on the N95-4, E71-2, and Garmin nuvi 250(I believe)). Now it locks onto position in seconds.

Surfing CP24/TheStar/etc. while on a commute is a great way to burn some time on those long rides. I also find that logging onto the WiFi at my school is difficult to maintain, since they use Aruba login security services which boots me if I don't maintain usage.


- From my understanding, its simply impossible to add email to your blackberry without a data plan. This is where my makeshift solution comes in. I made a hotmail account (xxxx@hotmail.com). I then set up my phone to recieve a text msg alert from hotmail everytime a new email arrives. Now I get free incoming txt with my plan. When my friend sends an email to me from his blackberry with data plan, to my xxxx@hotmail.com account, I get a txt msg 10 seconds later saying basically, I have mail. Since its txt msg, I get it even when out of wifi range. As soon as I recieve this mail, I log onto hotmail.com via my mobile phones free wifi web browser. From here I can read the email, and respond directly, free. The only hitch in my plan here appears to be that I think im being charged 5 cents per email alert from msn/rogers. I dont have my bill yet so im not sure, but I read something about that. Does any1 know of a free alert service?

Even with paying 5 cents an email, $10 would get me 200 emails, which is more then I would do in a month. It beats paying rogers $25+ a month for data plan.

So what I want to know is aside from blackberry messenger perhaps, what exactly would be the benifit of of me forking out $ for a data plan?

I get about 30 email's a day from my personal email, and about 5-10 a day from my University one, which will go up once classes start and my internship starts in a few months, so that's an easy 50~ per day. I use my university email for the push email from the BIS servers, so it's useful for my intern. I was loaned a Curve when I did my intern last year and I had to be mobile for that whole term, and boy did it help me track and maintain my work.

I pretty much had this plan before, $25 Canada-wide My5, $7 Caller ID, $7 Mobile WAP surfing, $10 2500 texts. I then thought, for $6 more per month, I could get 10,000 text messages, 500mb data pool, Caller ID, WhoCalled and VoiceMail.


I'm also on MSN Messenger 24/7 on my phone. No need to even have it on my computer anymore, I'm on it on my Bold and I can message or respond on the go. It sips the battery so my battery lasts for about 2 days instead of 3-4.

[007craft]

You're not exactly getting push e-mail nor non-WiFi wireless data coverage are you ;)

Don't be a poser... :cheesygri

If you want an organizer type phone, Nokia e71 is a much better choice.

A poser lol.

I sit at my computer desk all day, so dont use the phone (have net access). since I set up an AP too, I get wifi when im on break in our caf with my friends. Sure it may not be exactly push email, but im getting the emails instantly still and responding instantly. I just click refresh on the web browser which is always on hotmail (I have 2 browsers) and theres the email. And if im not wifi blanketed, I can still reply to the emails for a 5c fee or something. (not sure the exact cost).

I guess im not popular cause I dont get 30 emails a day. And browsing RFD while im mobile? lol. now thats serious addiction to this site

[coriolis]

A poser lol.

I sit at my computer desk all day, so dont use the phone (have net access). since I set up an AP too, I get wifi when im on break in our caf with my friends. Sure it may not be exactly push email, but im getting the emails instantly still and responding instantly. I just click refresh on the web browser which is always on hotmail (I have 2 browsers) and theres the email. And if im not wifi blanketed, I can still reply to the emails for a 5c fee or something. (not sure the exact cost).

I guess im not popular cause I dont get 30 emails a day. And browsing RFD while im mobile? lol. now thats serious addiction to this site

I don't think there is an extra cost for that. I get Google texts as it syncs my Bold with my GMail Calendar, so it texts me 3 times, once 2 hours before, once 1 hour and once 5 minutes before.

As for the emails, I'm a moderator at a site so I get notifications on reported posts in the forum I moderate. I have global moderator powers but I turned the report feature off, as it would mean I would be 200+ emails from reported posts alone, and it's quite annoying :lol:

[weedb0y]

I'm surprised that you get 2 days battery out of your bold? I am a heavy user, with tons of email coming through all the time and BB messenger and MSN messenger on the $20 BIS (personal email+IM) plan, and i can barely make it through one day on BB BOLD.

Its worse on 3G mode, on 2G, I can make it last the whole day.

[stevelam]

A poser lol.

I sit at my computer desk all day, so dont use the phone (have net access). since I set up an AP too, I get wifi when im on break in our caf with my friends. Sure it may not be exactly push email, but im getting the emails instantly still and responding instantly. I just click refresh on the web browser which is always on hotmail (I have 2 browsers) and theres the email. And if im not wifi blanketed, I can still reply to the emails for a 5c fee or something. (not sure the exact cost).

I guess im not popular cause I dont get 30 emails a day. And browsing RFD while im mobile? lol. now thats serious addiction to this site

lol @ clicking refresh on hotmail as a substitute for push email. ludicrous but whatever works for you i guess.

[007craft]

lol @ clicking refresh on hotmail as a substitute for push email. ludicrous but whatever works for you i guess.

i get a txt msg when i get a new email. Im not sitting there all day hitting refresh lol. I only refresh once I get the msg saying I got mail.

[tomthegreat]

isn't it like $15 for unlimitted email? so if you think it might be around $10 for your 200 emails a month, don't you think it would be worth it to spend an extra $5 and have the emails pushed right to your phone, be able to reply on the go and not have to get a text, wait till you're at wifi, then log in to hotmail, then use the hotmail interface to look at your email, and then use that interface to reply if need be?
but to each their own.