Cingular BB Unlimited question
 

Does Cingular BB Unlimited include text messaging / IM capability, or do I have to fork over the extra $$ for one of their text messaging "features"?

I heard that their BB Unlimited only covers web/email, so I just want to make sure I sign up for the right services.

Thanks

You will have to get a SMS plan if you want to use text messaging. Welcome to Cingular's 'Unlimited' plan ;) As far as IM's, most IM apps use data so you should be fine.

Ok - I think I have a little more understanding.

So if I want SMS(text messaging) I need to buy a plan or pay $0.10.

If I use a 3rd party IM client, that data is covered by the BB unlimited plan and thus is free.

Right?

Could they make this stuff any more confusing?

Any data are included in the unlimited data ( and it is truly unlimited). Text messages are excluded and require a package or pay per use.

Yes you need to buy a plan or use the pay per use feature.

Yes, if you use a 3rd party IM client, the data usage is covered by the unlimited plan. Note that the 3rd party app might cost $$ though.

If you use the 3rd party apps, make sure to look at your bill.
We use a 3rd party BB app, and its usage would show up on data overages.
The amount was very small, and took me a couple of months to figure it out. Cingular did credit the account for the data, as they coudnt figure out what the charges were for.

Not the case.....

Cingular and 3rd party apps are a really fuzzy area and you will get both answers on this. If you are on a BES, you have no problems. If you are on a BIS and using a 3rd party app that accesses the net via the WAP connection it can cause usage charges. Look on your features list for any lines that have a "per use", you don't want anything other than the text messaging on your feature list.

For me, I was free, no issues from July to November, then when I switch BBs, I started getting $25-50/month in charges. Ever month I would call and they would "fix the problem" and remove the charges. This month I had no data charges at all, so I think I am good again. But the latest talk seems to be that Cingular is going to stop giving credits and you either have to get an additional plan to cover the WAP or maybe get the tethering plan which is about $20-40/month.

Go to the link in my sig about this.

They may be revamping their policies to credits, but I would doubt that they would not issue a credit for data charges if you had the unlimited data feature on your account. I have been charged once, and I put a quick end to it. I said, "I was charged for data on my account and I have the unlimited data package, I need a credit please" The rep said, "I dont know if I can do that, becuase it seems that you were charged for data not covered by that feature." I said, "I have an unlimited data package, therefore it is unlimited and all inclusive. Data is data, no matter what form it comes in. Please apply the credit."

She applied the credit. Some people will have charges, but if you simply tell Cingular or whoever that you have a data package and what you were charged for was data, then they have no choice but to remove it. Plain and simple. I have done this for myself and my Cingular customers (although I have had very few with that problem) and it has worked everytime

Read my post on the WAP setup thread, page 7... (wont let me link the thread due to post count, but its Mark's "BlackBerry Internet - MSN/chat/web/telnet/TCPIP - No BES!" thread)

All you need for third party apps such as IM to work is access to the Cingular.WAP ...if you follow those instructions and still get Tunnel Errors... you need to call and ask for what i mentioned in my post... so yes, third party app data usage is completely free under the BB Unlimited Data plan... but from my research, not all the reps understand how to set it up and have told people other $ costing plans are required.

Yes, that's the problem.

It all depends on which rep. you speak to.

The plan i mentioned in the other thread is new and if you ask for it by name, the rep should be able to remove your current plan and add that one at no charge without really having to understand what your asking for.

Yes, you need to activate the cingular.wap APN to access third party programs. However you WILL get charged extra for using cingular.wap.

Some people have been able to get by without getting charged, but it is shaky. It seems that Cingular reviews accounts every few months or so, and will again start charging you for using the cingular.wap APN. The only way to avoid theses charges is to subscribe to a BES, which allows you to access all data through MDS.

At the same time, it seems that everyone who has ever contested these charges has had them removed without much hassle.

First of all, I have never been charged, so stating that YOU WILL GET CHARGED is false, please do not make generalizations as such. You do not have to subscribe to BES in order to not get charged. I have BIS and sell for Cingular, I dont get charged.

As for your last statement, you are correct, getting these removed is not a problem.

Either way, it is a good idea to *expect* to be charged. Even if you are one of the lucky few who have never been charged, that could easily change at any time, as has been noted many times on previous posts.

If you want to avoid this nightmare all together, BES seems to be a good option. Otherwise, plan on spending lots of time on the phone with Cingular requesting data charge refunds.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0) BlackBerry8700/4.1.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/102)

I am checking out this forum on my cingular bb w/ unlimted data and I am looking at the wap version of the forum. This is costing me additional dollars!?! Please respond asap! My pin is 203BFB54

No, that is just WAP browsing ("internet").

So i called cingular to add the BB connect unlimited plan like the nokia 9300 so that I could get the cingular wap as well(having tunnel error issues) and talked to 2 different reps(who checked with other people) and they both said cing. policy is that plan is for 9300 only...anybody else run into this problem? And if so how do you get around it? One of the reps I talked to said other people get around it but thats not policy.

so i finally got cing. today to get wap.cingular working but now i cant connect to inet via bb browser, only thru cing. browser. Is it possible that they deleted BB APN or something like that?