If you live in Australia, the prepaid options for BlackBerry with BIS services aren't exactly plentiful as only a few retailers offer the service, often with spotty coverage. Telstra is looking to better that situation a little and as such, have now made BlackBerry BIS service plans available to pre-paid customers. So how does it all work and what it will it cost you?
With your Pre-Paid BYO BlackBerry you can receive 30 days' access to the world-leading BlackBerry Individual Solution (BIS) with every recharge of $40 or more.
BIS provides you with unlimited BlackBerry and instant messaging, unlimited use of BlackBerry apps from BlackBerry AppWorld® for social networking, an unlimited number of emails, mobile web browsing in Australia, contact lists, tasks, calendar and organiser that you can take with you.
For every recharge of $40 or more you’ll enjoy 30 days' BIS access – plus the usual benefits in your pre-paid offer. Upon expiry of your BIS, you have a grace period of 30 days to recharge $40 or more and remain connected. If you miss this window, call 125 8887 and restore connection before you recharge.
In addition to the plan now being made available, Telstra will soon be offering the BlackBerry Curve 9320 as their first prepaid device on the network. Right now, we're not sure of the official launch date or pricing but if you currently already own a BlackBerry, Telstra will offer you the prepaid plan. Thanks, happydude-
Reader comments
Telstra now offering pre-paid BIS plans, BlackBerry Curve 9320 arriving soon
A good start but at $40/month still way too expensive to attract payg in Australia. Equivalent plans on other carriers can be $15-25.
Eg TPG (mvno on optus) with a $18/month plan for $650 calls and 1.5GB data. Similar for LiveConnected, RedBull
To attract the youth / SME market, Blackberry needs to get BIS on these carriers, or as shown on the PlayBook, remove the need for it altogether.
By not having cheap/free BIS on all the carriers, there is no point RIM even launching cheap handsets in Australia
I agree, BIS isn't exactly prepaid friendly here.
BOOST (on Optus) has the best offer for $40 - unlimited calls, SMS/MMS, unlimited BIS plus another 3GB of data for everything else.
I already have another phone on Optus (still contracted for a few months) - I myself was using a BlackBerry on 3 but now that the 3 3G network is about to disappear.. Vodafone is a no go for me. Have been waiting for a while for Telstra to do something like this (I have 3G 850 handsets too so its not an issue)
I'm kind of hoping Telstra don't release the 9320 for like $249 or something, nobody will buy it to be honest. Needs to be cheaper
Trinidad and Tobago has BIS pre-paid for about two years now with various options:
BBM, Facebook, Twitter US$4.50 per week
Email, BBM, Webbrowsing US$4.50 per week
Unlimited, BBM, Social Media, Emails US$9.25 per week
prices averaged and translated from TT currency.
Add to that a heavy demand for cheap curves and that is the reason its fairly popular however the supposedly competitive models the Bolds and Torches are rare.
Cheap curves are the new 'me too' but torches and bolds rare?
Guess its who you hang around and where you go. because im in Montreal and knew 4 ppl with the 9800 in trini BEFORE i had it and i got mine first month out..
3ne
Not to sure how to submit to crackberry to give them more info.... But I have already posted this with pricing in tow (as well as release dates)
http://www.blackberryforums.com.au/forums/blackberry-general-discussion/...
Enjoy
Good to hear. $199 is ~okay..
I'm hoping for the 4G PlayBook arriving soon! Any day now, RIM!
This is actually pretty sweet.
I was in Australia (from Canada) last summer and of course wanted to bring my BB. My carrier (TELUS) had roaming charges at the time of about $100/mb, so obviously that was not going to work. When I got down to AU I could not set it up because no prepaid service existed and I did not have an Australian address or proof of address. So I bought a global gossip SIM card and would use that for minutes and texting and then I planned on swapping my TELUS SIM card in and use data services on WIFI at the local McD's. Little did I know that you need data services to re-register the TELUS SIM and I couldn't do it over WIFI. So I was stuck with no BIS services during my trip.
From Australia I went to Thailand and even before I left the airport in Bangkok I had my approx $30/month unlimited BlackBerry data plan set up. Easy as pie.
I hope to see more of these services around the world and the challenge of setting up a BlackBerry with a data plan is the single biggest turn off of BlackBerry for me. All my friends in AU with iPhones had there prepaid data plans set up very easily and could keep contact with people back home a lot easier than I could.
For others looking at this thread for info
Crazy Johns (Vodafone) and Optus itself also offer BB prepaid.
Well telstra is the 1st carrier in australia that has offered bis on prepaid that isnt thru a reseller brand . Vha =crazy johns, optus = boost.
Well vha and optjs coverage isnt the best outside metro areas , telstrahas always been pricey so yeah.
As far as i know there are very few people under the age of 25 that have bolds or torches so the curve being a cheaper device is a perfect option for prepaid blackberry.
Outright the torch 9860 and the bold 9900 is around$760 . Thats huge $$$$$$. Especially on prepaid.