waseemkazi

Hi Got the BlackBerry 8703e working today from my Kyocera 7135. Few facts might help: 1. Buy it from Reliance will cost you 22,000 Rs. Buying it from other retailer (Alpha, Irla, Mumbai) will cost you Rs 20,150 2. BlackBerry handset only for post paid users. 3. Fixed additional cost of Rs 249/- per month as BlackBerry Rentals. This doesnt include any free data usage. data usage charges of 50p/KB applicable. If you can shell out 1099 Rs then you get free data usage. 4. Above data usaeg is for BlackBerry services only. aka Email from BlackBerry. Regular browsing/netconnect charges are applicable. 5. if you are an existing post paid customer the existing voice plan is applicable. Else if you are a new customer then you go on the default 199New Plan. 6. Two software versions. Enterprise and Customer. Regular users on the Customer version. This doesnt have Gtalk for example. Basic Functionalities. No external browser. Only Reliance Browser with the usual default settings. Note: Tried installing Opera Mini. Poor Opera Mini was not able to locate the network/browser settings on Reliance CDMA network..though Opera Mini works great on other GSM handhelds...and wonders of all..if you got Opera Mini installed the regular Reliance Browser stops browsing. So you uninstall Opera Mini ...restart the BB and voila Reliance Browser starts working!!!. Reliance Doesnt like any external applications on the BB..... Other stuff after i test it out..... Waseem Kazi

Hi Hetal, Have gone through most of your posts here. I think you are right on all the points here. GSM Operators do offer better/same services at a better/same rate and moreover you can get the GSM sim card working on any handset you want. PS: weirdo - Just let me know what kind of bills u get from reliance. Am curious to know the amount you get billed for Net connect and BB data services. Waseem Kazi

Hi Kailash Would suggest dont go in for any BB from Reliance. Even if you buy it cheaper from the US you would end up paying minimum 800-1000 Rs per month to Reliance even if you dont use the BB data services. This is my personal experience. 3 Bills i have paid without even using the BB data services. It seems Reliance considers BB users as some kind of premium user (no idea what for) and they would make sure you pay 1000 Rs extra per month. Waseem

Update on Billing. Made payments of the BB data charges and got BB data deactivated on the handset so that I dont pay anything for BB data....

Hi Reliance Billing is certainly "worldclass"...pun intended....Got 3 bills from reliance since i shifted to BB. Always get charged for BB charges even though i dont use it. I use the BB as a modem and i should get charged for reliance netconnect. But it seems Reliance wants to charge me for BB charges..which are ofcousrse on the higher side...its kinda cheating customers..am planning to take this to some kind of consumer court if this is not resolved by reliance. Waseem Kazi

Hi Ramchi Thanks for the inputs. I think you are right. I paid the bill amount so as to get my RIM number activated. I think I will shift compeletely to Airtel Prepaid. 15rs a day unlimited GPRS on prepaid in Mumbai. Would take 1-2 months time to get people aware about the change. But that would be worth it. And use RIM as backup. That would also depend on next months invoice from RIM. If its again like the current one then would be left with no option other then to give it back to RIM. Regards Waseem

Hi All This is the update on Reliance BB Billing issue. After 15 days of getting in touch with the call center and emailing the issue to RIM nothing was done on it. The usual responce was we are checking it and will update. Ofcourse with the standard line that "we have worldclass billing system and would have billed you if you would have used". My query was if they have bililed me X amount of data transfer and RIM has the records of their billing then I have the right to know what excatly the data browsing has happned Eventually emailed "Service Assurance Cell" at serviceassurancecell@relianceada.com and the Nodal Officer (details at http://www.rcom.co.in/webapp/Communication...tus/nodal.html) and Appellate authority (http://www.rcom.co.in/webapp/Communications/rcom/Contactus/AppellateAuthority.html) Got a reply back in less then 24 hours as follows: Dear Customer, In reference to your mail regarding your Reliance Mobile number XXXXX, please note that your request is logged as Service Request ID 58810737. We are working on the same and will respond to you shortly for the same. Your patience in this regard shall be highly appreciated. Yours sincerely, And the next day got the following reply (was kinda expecting this only..the same story which the call center guys gave) Dear Customer, With reference to your mail regarding your Reliance Mobile number XXXXX, as per the confirmation received from the relevant department and as per details checked and verified in our records please note that the data charges has been charged correctly. Therefore, we are unable to process your request for waiver of the same. Yours sincerely, And ofcourse as soon as i got the last email my connection was disabled. Doesnt pay to be a RIM postpaid customer form 2002 onwards!!! So either I pay up or loose my number. How I wish there was number portability on GSM and CDMA both and could shift the number. Any suggestions on how to handle this would be appreciated. Regards Waseem Kazi

Hi Ramchi Yes you are absolutely right on this. Datacard would be a better option if you want mobility. Also the data charges on mobile are very high as you have rightly mentioned. For the same amount you can be online on broadband with good speeds. Videocalls/VOIP stuff would require some great data services on mobile to get functional in India. Waseem

Hi Do you plan to use reliance BB for data on your laptop or desktop? I mean is mobility required? Cuase if not required then you should go in for some broadband plan on Tata Indicom or MTNL. Works out cheaper and good speeds. Example on Tata Indicom plan daily usage without any heavy download comes to 15-20 rupess approximately. Same would go for MTNL Triband. If you require for your laptop/mobily then you should go in for datacard as people have expalined in this post. Would be easier to handle also. have never persoanly used datacards but I belive they do provide some kinda support for sending smses also. not sure on this. you would need to confirm this. Reliance BB unlimtied plan is 1099 rs and plus you pay default voice plan. lets say base minimum 149rs. for that amount you can get a 256KBPS or even 512kbps broadband connection if you dont plan to download heavy files this would carry you throughout a months time. Waseem

Hi Never sent a long message on reliance or received one recently. That problem has to do with the CDMA SMSC which Operators use. BB wont be any different as its not a device related issue. on GSM on any device long messages would work fine. They would update automatically while receiving and vice versa for the outgoing long sms. Waseem

Hi Palm Treo 750 doesnt freeze. Speaker phone good enough. Headset is not that great. bluetooth stable. and dleivery reports in the sent items Waseem

Hi regrets for the delay. I was out of town on a personal visit. have replied to your queries Waseem

I am currently using a Nokia E61i with BB connect from airtel. The service is perfectly acceptable, but the handset has a big problem : it keeps freezing and slowing down constantly. I shifted from the E61 which had similar problems. Yes. E-sereis is slower as comapred to other nokia handsets. Had a freind using E62 and he too found it slow. I am considering shifting to reliance bb for dedicated messaging (email, IM and SMS) as i have a DAPO number, and the Reliance network, because of the 800 Mhz frequency has terrific in-building penetration. (very useful in bombay's big buildings). Yes it does have good coverage. Though Airtel would be decent enough also. I know that the bb 8703 will be good as an email device. yes its good enough. Also prices has mentioned have been reduced. How is it for sms ? Does it have threaded SMS ? Yes it has threaded SMS. Does it keep freezing or slowing down ? It does some times. RIM does some kind of security validation i guess to check if you have any 3rd party application installed. But this happens when you are connected to the BB as a modem. Else it doesnt happen. How does IM work, particularly gtalk. Didnt try that. Cuase dont want to end up paying heavy charges for data to reliance. Am on the base 250 rs plan. As far as I understand if you use BB as a modem and use the reliance browser you are charged the netconnect charges. For me its 50p/minute. Dont know if IM would be charged on this or the BB data charges. I plan to use airtel for voice and reliance bb for data and sms. Sounds workable. There is unlimited plan on BB

But 1760KB can be crossed very easily, even if you download a small mail; 100 to 200Kb will be consumed. Check with Reliance, they always have some billing problem. Hi When I setup the BB email account for testing/checking purposes i downloaded 8 emails in total. Without any attatchments ofcourse. 100 Rs per email download is a bit steep. Yes. Reliance does have a problem with billing. Called up the BB help line. The guy was not able to help out. Was told to email. Being couple of days. No responce yet. Waseem Waseem, How much is the rental? and is this Rs.880 in addition to the monthly rental? Hi 250 Rs is the BB rental. Data transfer other then this monthly rentals. Wont suggest anybody to go in for BlackBerry from Reliance at this point of time. Waseem What is the source of news that 8703e price is reduced to 15699/- ? Also where is it availbale in that price? Hi Even if Reliance reduces the price they will make moneys out of the monthly billing. Would suggest a windows mobile device on a fixed cost per day GSM Operator. For example Airtel. Pay 15 Rs per day. Download all the emails on your pda on the outlook client. works out cheaper. Wont suggest anybody to go in for BlackBerry from Reliance at this point of time. Waseem Kazi

Hi First bill came in. Got charged Rs 880/- for consuming 1760 KB data charges. And best part is Never used BB for chekcing emails!!!!! Just configured my POP email ID on BB to see how it works and even deleted the settings. Still I get charged. Spoke to the BB customer care. Guys have no idea. Have asked me to email them up asking for clarifcations. Would be pleaseantly surprised if i receive a responce form reliance. Will post the reply here in case i get any. Wont suggest anybody to go in for BlackBerry from Reliance at this point of time. Waseem Kazi

Hi Vishal I think bb is an enterprise Email server. Not sure how you will sync it with the desktop/laptop. The BB Maps dont work for Indian cities. BB chat/IM URL is http://na.blackberry.com/eng/services/inte...ant_message.jsp BB Messengers supported on reliance network are Yahoo, GTalk and the BB messenger. No ICQ, AIM and MSN there. Regards Waseem

RIM might not block..But Reliance is blocking for sure. The BB does a validation check after you install any third party app. Opera Mini didnt work for me and it stopped net access on the BB. Even the BB Desktop manager has a import function where you can import contacts from win ce based mobile. Even that is disabled. Top it up with blue tooth. Cant use it to transfer data like contacts. You can use blue tooth in BB only for the headset. Waseem

Hi 1. Google Talk/Yahoo Mesenger No voice chat/talk option here on the BB on either of this 2 messengers. 2. If we get the reliance blackberry plan costing about Rs.1000 per month can we use it as a modem to connect laptop for unlimited downloads or is there any additional charge for the same? Am yet to figure out how to setup BB as a modem. Any help on this would be appreciated. Previously i was able to define Kyocera 7135 as a modem and 7135 had a modem utility which was intallled on the desktop pc. The Rs 1000 plan ( 1099 rs to be specific) is only for BB email service. Not for browsing/accessing the net. For that you pay as per the Reliance Net conenct plan you are on. 3. MSN messenger blocked? Yes doesnt work. Tried intalling a 3rd party MSN messenger and RIM doesnt like it on the BB. 4. I get a lot of emails in my gmail account- if I open the emails on the blackberry is there a memory problem? BB has good hardware config. Dont think it would crash. 5. MSN Messenger is not available, its in Win ver 6. MSN messenger is avaialbable on all Windows CE based mobiles..including ver 2003, ver 5 and ver 6. MSN mesesnger is not avaiable on BB provided by Reliance CDMA. Regards Waseem

Hi BB works great. Got the BB internet services activated. As soon as the activation happens u get Yahoo Search, Gtalk, Yahoo Messenger and BB browser installed on your Handset. BB email setup is a breeze. Talktime is excellent so is the battery life. Bluetooth cant be used to transfer contacts/data from other handsets. It has been blocked. Bluetooth can only be used for headsets. Even import function via the BB Desktop Manager doesnt work. It has been blocked. Yet to get the first invoice/bill from RIM for the first month of BB usage. Will update on that. With the kind of BB data transfer charges I wont be downloading emails on my BB device. Overall good handset for Reliance CDMA network. Provided you need to stick/use only Reliance CDMA network. Else on GSM network would suggest the HTC touch unlocked for the same price range...around 20k...excellent battery life, excellent audio quality (you can hear the ringtone on a WINce based mobile in the next room also), sharp display and the slimmest PDA avaiable in the market. Only 2 issues with HTC touch is the WinCE 6 version. One no Remote Desktop on the handset. And second is auto sync contacts with MSN messenger contacts. This one is crazy. You are forced to sync your MSN contacts if you login to MSN messenger form the HTC touch with your contacts on your handset. Imagine if you got 100 MSN messenger contacts....its a nightmare......I had to delete the MSN contacts form my handset and restore the actual mobile contacts. Trust Microsoft to mess it up. WinCE 5 is the best OS on PDAs if you ask me....WinCE has good options...but this 2 issues mess it up badly. Regards Waseem

Hi Will be priced around 30k-32k. 8703e is 20k and the only model right now avaiaible. Waseem

Hi Will be priced around 30k-32k. 8703e is 20k and the only model right now avaiaible. Waseem

Hello All, 5th day of BB and following inputs: 1. Buy it from Reliance will cost you 22,000 Rs. Buying it from other retailer (Alpha, Irla, Mumbai) will cost you Rs 20,150 Reliance doesnt like you buying BB from other retailers. The BB support people were helpful till they found out i didnt buy it from them. The moment they come to know you are not buying from them it is like "kindly refer to the settings details in the manual." "Plz call the help line number" etc. I say if you can save Rs 1850 save it!!!!! Settings are not that tough for setting up the BIS aka BlackBery Internet service. 2. BB Experience: Battery is great. got 3 days of stand by time which is great for a PDA/Handheld if you ask me. Actual Talktime will update after using it. It does take time to get used to the scroll button/commands. Screen is great...Java Script is enabled on the Default Browser. Though it does take some time to load the JS on the browser. BB Email: As i mentioned there are 2 options. Enterprise and Customer. If you company is willling to setup a BB server then you need to go in for the Enterprise version. Else you are on the Customer/Individual Plan like me. Now it takes 72 Hours for the BB service to get activated. I tried configuring the accounts..POP email accounts..No BB server for me...it didnt allow me as it was not activated. But the current Email settings is like regular Outlook settings...so it wont be a problem per se. By this month end would get the Bill from Reliance on the BB handset. Will update on this also. In nutshell following: 1. Batter life great if you ask me. 2. Java Script support. This rocks. WinCE 5 didnt have it. WinCE6 has it. 3. MIDP 2.0 support. 4. Default setings cant be changed. Cant install any other software on the BB. This kinda is a dampner 5. Wap Push and MMS supported. Yet to test it out. 6. Network Supported shows CDMA IN 393f40. Need to figure that out. 7. GPS shows "off" by Default. Will check on this if it works. 8. BBs Got a firewall. This rocks. 9. Miss my MSN Messenger and Remote Desktop Client from WinCE5. Require that badly. Regards Waseem