Blackberry 8703e

[vishalsheth 19]

If you compare the EDGE Vs GSM almost similar story will be there. Since Datacards have become cheaper and it does not require batteries (unlike Mobile phone internet for which you need to keep the mobile phones charged), people using Mobiles as the main source of internet connectivity in countries like India is slowing down.

Most of the countries offer unlimited data plans (3G or EVDO). In US 3G standards are slowly evolving and due to FAA regulations, 3G deployment is slowing down (just like we have TRAI/DOT/GOI/COAI). In Europe 3G services are damn expensive, while in India even basic data plans (in certain circles) are almost Rs 300 + usage charges.

In my opinion it does not really matter to Indian subscribers whether a mobile instrument is 3G/EDG/EVDO compatible so long it can allow customers to talk. Video calls, VoIP calls etc…is not getting popular in India unlike Japan or Europe.

But WiFi will be an added advantage for browsing net/checking mails/VoIP chat etc…

http://podcasts.msmobiles.com/?p=199

Do see this podcast it's interesting. Europe gets very good internet speeds.

[waseemkazi 0]

waseemkazi : thanks for the detailed reply> One more question : what is the maximum length of sent sms that the reliance bb 8703e allows ? and how does it handle long sms received ?

I am currently using an lg 6250 on reliance. It breaks up long outgoing text messages into parts with max. 160 characters in each part. Similarly, long incoming messages are also broken up into different messages of 160 character length.

How does the BB 8703e handle long messages ?

On gsm nokia s60 devices, neither outgoing nor incoming long messages are broken into different segments

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

[waseemkazi 0]

I plan to use airtel for voice and reliance bb for data and sms.

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

Edited November 28, 2007 by waseemkazi

[waseemkazi 0]

If you compare the EDGE Vs GSM almost similar story will be there. Since Datacards have become cheaper and it does not require batteries (unlike Mobile phone internet for which you need to keep the mobile phones charged), people using Mobiles as the main source of internet connectivity in countries like India is slowing down.

Most of the countries offer unlimited data plans (3G or EVDO). In US 3G standards are slowly evolving and due to FAA regulations, 3G deployment is slowing down (just like we have TRAI/DOT/GOI/COAI). In Europe 3G services are damn expensive, while in India even basic data plans (in certain circles) are almost Rs 300 + usage charges.

In my opinion it does not really matter to Indian subscribers whether a mobile instrument is 3G/EDG/EVDO compatible so long it can allow customers to talk. Video calls, VoIP calls etc…is not getting popular in India unlike Japan or Europe.

But WiFi will be an added advantage for browsing net/checking mails/VoIP chat etc…

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

[waseemkazi 0]

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

Edited November 29, 2007 by waseemkazi

[Ramchi 0]

Number portability may not happen immediately, you never know whether our Corporate Babus like Mittals, Tatas, Ambanis would really like to expose their customers. They will try their best to delay the deployment in all forms.

Get your last 6 months itemized bills and take all unique mobile numbers send an SMS after changing your service to a new number. This may not be easier to do but in my opinion the best thing to do if you are not satisfied with RIM.

As a customer you should also need to manage your number change effectively. Just like Business name change happen for tactical or strategic reasons, you should also minimize the risk of too much dependency on your fixed mobile number. Best way to mitigate is by self-inflicting the change and see what happens. Now atleast, you have better control over everything and completely aware of the consequences.

Assume yourself in unexpected situations where RIM or some other provider disconnects your services or increases the tariff at unacceptable levels, you will be doing it all in a hurry and may not be aware of associated risks.

Proactively disconnect your mobile services periodically and avoid getting into the trap of your number identity. You will become your number otherwise!

[waseemkazi 0]

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

[innersky 0]

"You will become your number otherwise!" Deeply philosophical ! Have not seen such insights on RIMWEB. What do you do for a living, Ramchi ? Are you a philosopher ?

[Ramchi 0]

What do you do for a living, Ramchi ? Are you a philosopher ?

For living- very simple just like everyone else breath, eat, sleep etc....! Am I philosopher?....why not...if you think so....

My question would be - Are you a Reliance Shareholder?

Edited December 3, 2007 by Ramchi

[Ramchi 0]

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

If you have all your contacts in the mobile and in addition if you take your itemized bills of last 6-12 months, it should be ok to cover more than 90%-95% of your contacts.

[innersky 0]

Ramchi : My question would be - Are you a Reliance Shareholder?

I have no shares in any ADAG group company. But what made you think that I do ?

[waseemkazi 0]

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

[supernova 47]

there is price drop again in this model 2 days back . its now for 14990

[city02 63]

Has anyone tried to download their addressbook from RMW to a BB?

i get data errors:

if the original entry was 'Ab cd' uploaded

i get 'ab ab cd' downloaded

i.e., the last name/label is repeated in the BB phonebook

on an unrelated note the first & last names also get swapped but that's a different problem!

[city02 63]

Here is my review of the BB 8703e that I got for under Rs 12 k:

I just bought a BB 8703e from RCOM and am comparing the design/usability with my 5 year old LG 6000 that I'm replacing since it was getting too expensive to repair [motherboard issues].

Here are the top dozen problems that I encountered in the first few weeks of use:

1. No camera!

Not acceptable for ANY handset over Rs. 10 k these days even though the box says it was imported about 3 years ago in 2006 and probably launched in 2005.

2. No multi-alarm

Only has a single alarm, my ancient LG allows upto 5 alarms!

A software update / free download can fix this application.

3. No weekday setting

Again can be fixed with software.

My LG has a daily or weekday only frequency option.

4. PC backup did not work

I'll contact customer care and get this resolved but after installing the CD, at least the phonebook backup should work the 1st time.

The button is disabled on a HP windows vista laptop.

This HAS to work eventually so I only expect this to be a temp issue for 1st time customers.

5. CD did not install in Vista

Required some compatibility mode settings.

There should be a free download for vista from the BB website but I could not locate it in 5-10 min of browsing around and gave up.

6. Only 2 'themes' available and both ****

This should be expanded to 4-6 themes on the handset and another dozen available for free online.

7. Price

Poor VFM [value for money].

Don't buy new for over Rs. 9-10 k or used for Rs. 7-8 k

8. Keypad not intuitive

I kept pressing the SYM key to access the 'dot'/period over M.

Turns out you have to press the ALT key instead.

Why not just call it the SHIFT key to make it similar to most keyboards?

Duh!

9. No wrap-around

While scrolling through the long list of dozens of apps to get to 'options',

you have to scroll all the way back the icons to get to 'messages'.

I counted an avg of 4 full scrolls which culd have been reduced to one if it simply wrapped around from the bottom to the top at the end of the list.

10. Low battery mode

The BB automatically switches off the mobile 'radio' when it has very low battery that puts it into the equivalent of 'airplane' mode in other phones.

I hate that, and would prefer to let it discharge completely to extend battery life.

Instead I have to recharge with some life left each time which reduces the operating time of any rechargeable battery due to the 'memory' effect.

There should simply be an option to never switch off the cellular radio just like most other handsets.

11. Right side scroll wheel

Takes some getting used to since its obsolete in the newer models.

Touchscreens is the way forward.

There should be a setting like in windows to adjust the speed of scrolling since its quite slow.

12. Remaining battery life

There should be an option to also display the life left in standby time or as a % since there is plenty of screen space.

13. SMS forwarding

A relatively simple feature that's not possible in this BB model is the ability to fwd SMS to numbers outside your addressbook/contact list.

I can fwd SMS in my LG to any number in my call logs including incoming/missed calls.

In this BB, you can ONLY fwd to phonebook numbers which is a silly restriction.

14. Call blocking/filtering

I can't setup blacklists or 'whitelists' for incoming calls/SMS which should at least be a free downloadable app from the BB site.

15. SMS reply to incoming calls

My only options are 'answer' or 'ignore' for all incoming calls.

We need an 'ignore & SMS' option also so we can set the msg to say we're busy etc.

16. Customer care

This is so bad that I've decided to copy it below:

'With reference to your mail , we would like to inform you that Blackberry device is purely made for email solutions and you will not get all the features as compared to normal Nokia, LG, Samsung etc. phones

As of now in Blackberry device there is no option available to set the alarm excluding the week days.

Yours Sincerely,

D. J.

BlackBerry Customer Care

Reliance Communications Limited'

This would have been helpful to know BEFORE buying the device!

None of their marketing/advertising ever mentions these artificial constraints.

Not a very SMART phone...

17. Number formatting

We need an app to format Indian numbers customised by the user.

I would like to set rules like:

- For all numbers starting with '9', '09', '+919' etc;

display as '(0) 9xxxx xxxxx' for easier readability [i.e., mobiles]

- Those with '+91' or '0091' prefixes should be displayed as '(0xx) xxxx xxxx' [i.e., landlines]

- all the rest can have the default format

18. Order of icons

I would like to customise the order of the icons on the 'desktop' / home screen.

There should be an option to sort by MRU [most recently used] and MFU [most frequently used.

19. Unified inbox is not completely unified

Currently I can't figure out how to combine my SMS with the email & call logs inboxes.

So I have to goto 2 different places to check either.

If someone has figured this out, please let me know!

20. No memory card slots

This maybe due to the age of this model but then it should be priced lower as well!

21. Badly designed belt clip

The 'reliance' sticker on the back gets stuck in the belt clip when sliding the handset in and out.

Either the sticker should have been thinner or the clip looser.

The clip also does not swivel to accommodate you when seated so the handset starts to dig in.

The clip does rotate in distinct clicks which is not really required since its a bit noisy and attracts attention for no reason.

22. Reliance Mobile World

The phonebook download is very buggy and swaps the first & last names of all your uploaded entries.

It also adds the last name as a middle name!

It should have been tested when they launched the model.

I know this is not a BB issue but it impacts all RCOM users who are changing handsets and were counting on their addressbook downloads to work.

That's it - I've only had it a fortnight so far...

Oh, there are some plus points also:

1. Unified Inbox

All you calls & emails can be viewed together which every mobile should have.

Many Nokia still have different lists for incoming, outgoing, missed etc.

2. Configurable buttons

On the front and left sides but there should have been more.

I have set it to lock the keypad on a single click which is better than the Nokia approach.

I would have preferred the LG style long press for unlock instead of using 2 keys:

'*' above A & the 'call' button.

3. Push email of course

That's the primary reason most of us even go for a BB.

As soon as other mobiles can become compatible with the BB backend [enterprise server], that'll be the beginning of the end of BB sales!

In fact there is a crying need of an open architecture backend that can push email to any handset so we are not locked into BB's proprietary technology.

4. Accessories

At least these are readily available in Navi Mumbai with receipts.

Original battery with 6 month warranty from Maaru for Rs. 1,600/=

Branded charger for Rs 850/= in Vashi.

Chinese/unbranded charger for Rs 300/=

I also got a 12V car charger, scratch proof stick on screen cover which I recommend.

I plan to get an extra data cable too [one for work & one for home].

Some additional issues with the interface since I wrote that opinion:

23. Add to existing contact

I can't figure out how to add a number to an existing entry in the phonebook.

This option should appear right below the 'add to contact' feature that creates a new entry.

24. SMS directly from call logs

We can't seem to send an SMS to a number directly from the calls list.

It only has 'call XYZ' in the menu options.

Only when you open/view the entry does 'SMS XYZ' appear.

This additional clicking is totally unnecessary and easily avoided.

[Mufaddal 678]

though the box says it was imported about 3 years ago in 2006 and probably launched in 2005.

lol ....and they are still selling this outdated handset

The BB automatically switches off the mobile 'radio' when it has very low battery that puts it into the equivalent of 'airplane' mode in other phones.

there is an app called "radio on " which i have on my 8830 which prevents this from happening

i dont know if i cud work on ur 8703

try it , its posted in my bb apps thread

[city02 63]

does anyone know of any email filter limits in BB?

i can't seem to add any more based on sender or subject after a dozen or so.

i don't want spam email sent to my handset so i need lots of filters...