[kuishao]

I'm planning on getting a BB here in the UK.
From what i understood in here, there's two way of using msn : data transfer and sms.
I plan on getting a 7290 version. Which is i supposed good for data.

Can anyone tell me which monthly allowance is ok ?
I have no idea of how heavy a conversation is. Is 5MB enough or not ?

Thanks

[Jay2]

Hi there!

Right; on this subject things get very complicated!

In the U.K. all of the providers use the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and so all traffic that is not email is sent over TCP/IP and their Access Points; this means that no matter how large your BlackBerry data quota is (T-Mobile offer 50 MB and O2 5 MB), chatting on MSN using instant messaging software will not eat into this, instead they will charge you per KB as they would if you were using GPRS to surf WAP pages on a standard handset.

Most tariffs include a GPRS quota as well as the BlackBerry data quota, for example I have a 5 MB BlackBerry data quota that is part of my O2 BlackBerry tariff! To use voice and SMS services O2 required me to have a standard tariff too, (I use the O2 100 tariff) which gives me an additional 50 MB of standard GPRS use.

Instant messaging software would eat into the 50 MB GPRS quota and not my 5 MB BlackBerry data quota. If you were logged into the MSN network via instant messaging software, the 50 MB GPRS quota would be consumed within a week!

In the U.K. it isn’t too economical to chat over instant messaging services via mobile devices as our GPRS data quotas generally have limits; unlike many In the U.S.A., unless you use a mobile device with Wireless Village compliant software such as the new Sony Ericsson and Nokia devices.

If you’d like to know more about Wireless Village or Instant Messaging & Presence Services (IMPS) then post a reply below; but it’s on an entirely different subject so I wont go into it right now!

I do hope this has helped you!

[kuishao]

I know that the instant messenging type of data isn't included in the basic package. I have to take an extra plan that includes that type of data exchange.
My question is how much of this plan should i take ?
The unlimited offer in the UK is waaaaaaaaay too expensive (£80 at orange)
I would like to be connected on the device lets say only on the week ends... any idea of the MB i'd need ?

Can you please tell me more about the wireless village ?

[Jay2]

Okay I’ve just looked around the Internet for a guide to traffic usage when connected to IMPS or instant-messaging software but I can’t find anything.

I would guess it would consume a 20 MB quota, as even when you’re not chatting the IMPS or instant-messaging software will converse with the network every minute or so.

If you were to use true IMPS software the traffic would vary depending on the manufacturer; for example, Motorola mobile devices all support IMPS but they converse using plain XML and so just logging into an IMPS server could consume 90 KB of your GPRS quota! Nokia and Sony Ericsson (although less of their mobile devices support IMPS) use binary XML to converse, consuming just 4 KB when logging into an IMPS server (binary XML transmissions are typically ten times smaller than plain XML)!

The Wireless Village; a protocol of IMPS, is now a standard feature on many mobile devices, especially those from manufactures such as Motorola, Nokia and Sony Ericsson. The mobile device would connect to an IMPS server which in turn would connect to external recourses and push them to the mobile device.

Yamigo (http://www.yamigo.com/) is one of the first IMPS servers available and supports external connection to all major instant-messaging protocols! First you subscribe to Yamigo via their Web site, and provide them with your log-in details for each instant-messaging protocol you wish to use (AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo! etc.). From your mobile device you would connect the Yamigo IMPS server, at the server you would then be connected to each of your chosen instant-messaging protocols and messages would be pooled and pushed to your mobile device much like emails are pooled and pushed to BlackBerrys!

IMPS has not yet taken off in the U.K. and vendors are greatly ill-informed! You may be told that although the mobile device supports instant-messaging the network does not; this is false and I would suggest you look at each manufacturers Web site for the full specification of each mobile device you’re interested to make sure it supports IMPS. I personally have used a Motorola V3 Razor, Motorola V80, Sony Ericsson K700i and a Sony Ericsson T630i to connect to IMPS and chat over the MSN instant-messaging protocol!

[HobbesIE]

it would be great if we could run the yamigo.com style connection over our blackberry apn alright.

Hobbes