The Switch: Episode 3

As I posted before, my BlackBerry Bold arrived without any special BlackBerry data plan. Just the smartphone and packaged data plan from the service provider (T-Mobile Poland). This selection turned out to be a disaster for two reasons.

First: the way the Bold handles packet data connections (aka GPRS) combined with the way T-Mobile bills packet data (even in packages) results in an average bill to reach 150MB a month (the real amount of transmitted data is far less than that, but BlackBerry applications open and close data sessions very often, so every 3kB or 5kB session is rounded up to the so called "first 100kB"). While this can be handled at home by selecting a large enough data plan (500MB a month in my case), any trip abroad will likely bring you close to Chapter 11...

Second: there are a number of very useful applications (namely: Facebook Mobile, Google Talk) that do not work without any subscription to BlackBerry services (BIS - prosumer or BES - corporate). So even if you have a mobile data plan and your BlackBerry has a WiFi radio, you won't be able to run those applications. I was fully unaware of that and so was my T-Mobile sales person, as when purchasing the Berry, I explained everything I was expecting form the device to him, and he suggested selecting just the terminal (the BlackBerry Bold) and a generic packaged data plan. That sounded reasonably and would certainly work in Windows Mobile environment, where applications are completely agnostic of the way data packets are routed underneath. In the BlackBerry world however, things are different... Surprisingly VERY different...

So after painful three weeks of using the Berry and learning its way of handling Internet connectivity, I decided to go back to T-Mobile and turn on the BIS service (BlackBerry Internet Service). Basically it does two things: routes data packets via the [blackberry.net] APN and lets you configure your email to work the "push" way (the core feature and philosophy of the BlackBerry platform). I never really needed the push feature, as the native GMail application from Google worked really well, generating almost instant notifications of incoming emails. But on the other hand GMail was the main consumer of my data plan (generating a lot of tiny data sessions, probably polling servers for new emails). I wanted to have the other applications (Facebook, Google Talk) working too, and that was the real reason for turning on the BIS service.

Some three hours after the BIS was turned on, the first sign of life could have been spotted in the upper right corner of the screen - lowercase "edge" changed to uppercase "EDGE", meaning the Bold connected successfully to its associated BIS account using the [blackberry.net] APN instead of the previously used [erainternet] generic APN. And when I got back home, the little WiFi symbol that used to stay gray before, changed the color to white. Also on the Connection Manager screen the WiFi line was showing a green check mark right to the associated network name, instead of the white dash that used to be there before. My understanding of this is the phone uses WiFi and Internet to tunnel traffic to the BIS servers.

I started checking the applications and several suddenly started working. The Facebook application displayed a list of friends, offering poking them or sending messages and Google Talk automatically logged on to my profile setting my status to green (available) and even started receiving conversations, letting me to reply.

The next experiment was to turn the mobile network off and see what (if any) applications continue to work over WiFi. Facebook reported it could not connect, so did GMail, but - surprise, surprise - Google Talk kept on working fine. Later on I also discovered the BIS connectivity is maintained over a WiFi connection, so the messages are delivered without interruption even if the cellular is turned off.

Unfortunately, the real-time services bill by T-Mobile was still showing a total mess. Still a lot of very short data connections (nicely rounded up by the carrier to 100kB each), some to the [blackberry.net] APN (unlimited plan when not roaming) and some to the default [erainternet] APN, eating up the monthly 500MB plan fast. So now the goal was to find exactly what activities materialize as charges on the bill. The day before I spent two hours with a T-Mobile sales representative trying to press him to explain how the services and connections are charged. All he could say was they bill for the first 100kB, but he could not explain when the "first 100kB" occurs. Looking at my bill I happen to have about one hundred "first 100kB" items a day. Seems as any activity - a key press on a link in the Web browser generates some data transmission (usually 2-5kB) that gets immediately rounded to 100kB, being treated as "the first 100kB". The good thing is, I do not pay for that, as my monthly plan is 500MB (I estimated I would need about 170 data sessions a day to reach that limit). The bad thing is, such setup would generate a massive bill when roaming. 100kB outside the EU costs me $2, so a hundred 100kB sessions a day would cost $200 and month-long holidays in the US would result in $6000 for data transmission alone!

On the New Year's Eve I turned off all applications: logged out of Google Talk, Facebook, promised not to touch any Internet browser. Changed the APN setting from [erainternet] to [blackberry.net] (in a silly hope this will redirect some more traffic to the BIS). Turned off WiFi and started examining my real time bill. Nothing. Email messages kept on arriving via the BIS push service, I could reply to them and nothing showed up on the bill. I was expecting at least a few connections to the [blackberry.net] APN to appear, but they were not present. Not a single activity billed.

36 hours later (afternoon on January 1st) I touched the Web browser, just to check the T-Mobile real time billing system survived the New Year celebration and immediately four data sessions were logged (that would be $8 if I were roaming...). So the first suspect was clear: the browser on the BlackBerry Bold uses cellular packet data and eats the monthly data plan (or is charged extra when roaming). I kept on searching the Internet for more information to confirm my theory and the best article describing the insanely complicated approach to Web browsing configuration on the BlackBerry was found on the Crackberry site: http://crackberry.com/blackberry-browsers-explained. It would almost help me understand what was going on on my Berry, but unfortunately for some reason, the "Internet Browser" that "is on every BlackBerry", was missing on my device. All I have is the "Hotspot Browser" (uses Wi-Fi) and a "blueconnect" browser, keen on eating the generic data plan. I will keep on digging...

Then I turned on Facebook. When the Facebook application was off, I noticed the Facebook notification emails sent to my GMail account were relayed by BIS to the BlackBerry device as ordinary emails. Turning the Facebook on, resulted in messages showing up in the Facebook application, while simultaneously the emails were no longer appearing. It seems the Facebook application intercepts the Facebook notification emails relayed by BIS and uses them as triggers to fetch the real Facebook messages. Unfortunately, it immediately starts eating the generic data plan. Facebook DOES NOT work over the [blackberry.net] APN. When I had [blackberry.net] as an APN in TCP/IP options, it could not connect complaining about inappropriate data plan. When I changed the APN in TCP/IP options to [erainternet] (put your standard WAP APN here), it started working. But now what happens. Somebody sends you a Facebook message. The notification email is intercepted by the BlackBerry application that in turn opens a new data session to the generic APN, fetches the message and closes the session. This results in two data items being deposited on your bill (carriers bill separately for uplink and downlink). Again if you do this at home, it usually does not hurt, as most of us have sufficiently unlimited data plans. But as soon as you roam into a foreign territory, it starts costing you a fortune. Two data items, two dollars each total $4 for a delivery of a single Facebook message, such as "Hello!". Do you feel like being ripped off? I do... Stay away from the Facebook application when roaming... However silly it sounds... As Facebook Mobile SHOULD be what you use when traveling. But not for $4 a message, thank you!

Another experiment was to move to Google Talk. To make things clear, I logged off Facebook, so it did not interfere. I also changed the APN in TCP/IP options back to [blackberry.net]. Facebook was not working in such conditions blaming it on the lack of connectivity... But guess what - Google Talk logged on successfully, presenting my status and a list of friends with their statuses. Nothing on the bill at this moment... This somehow proves the theory Google Talk works over the [blackberry.net] APN (or over WiFi when present, but you have to be a BIS subscriber). This is good news, and if confirmed in the long run, would make Google Talk the application of choice when roaming... I really wish I had a Web browser on the Berry, working the way Google Talk does. And the real shame is GMail and Google Maps cannot use the [blackberry.net] APN. Probably because they are provided by Google and not by BlackBerry (which is the case with Google Talk).

It has been a long week... some questions answered, even more raised... So far the BlackBerry Bold has been the good (hardware, native software), the bad (third party applications) and the ugly (complete unclear services model outside the core messaging). I will continue to investigate things and keep you posted... stay tuned!