[HappydaysAgain]

Hi Everyone. I'm changing from a Treo 650 to a BB 8700 series using BES. I would be grateful for some advice from users in the UK operating a BB 8700 on Orange or a BB 8707 on Vodafone. Orange support EDGE, however this doesn't seem to work in London or the South East where I am predominently based and I'm uncertain if it is actually working elsewhere in the UK just yet. This has led me to favour getting a 8707 on Vodafone to take advantage of faster downloading speeds. However, from reading posts here, it appears battery life on the 8707 is not good. Is it really as bad as some people have suggested?

I'm not sure which model to get - can anyone help?

[linuxpro]

Please see threat

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...ry-8707-a.html

had the same issue as well and posted here and got a lot of good advice,

hope the threat helps !!

[HappydaysAgain]

Many thanks for the thread - are you still happy with your 8700 or did you change it? I view a lot of pdf attachments to emails - how do you get on speed wise downloading and reading these attachments?

[linuxpro]

sorry it took so long to get back to you my computer was down all day (had IT guys in fixing it all day) yea very happy with the 8700 got it last Wednesday and a colleague got a 8707 on the same day now he's on his 2nd one since then, and now he's got one that works and we are comparing them my web browser and the 8700 it's self is a lot quicker than the 8707 also a big difference is the battery life my battery has being charged once when i got it he's charged his 8707 battery on Friday when he got the 2nd one and was flat on Sunday my 8700 is still showing two bars, finding the 8700 very helpful indeed especially e-mail and pin messaging, haven't tried any instant messaging programmes yet, would highly recommend the 8700 really glad i didn't get the 8707, but at the end of the day the decision is yours, but here is a tip if your buying it from Vodafone buy direct over the phone as when i visited the vodafone store they wanted xxx163;100 on a xxx163;70 per month 18 month contract, when i called vodafone direct they gave it to me free on a xxx163;40 per month 18 month contract or xxx163;50 on a 12 month contract, of course i went for the 18 month contract (cheapskate that i am) buy hey i was a good deal, if you have any other questions let me know, hope this post helps

[HappydaysAgain]

Linux Pro
Many thanks for such a comprehensive reply. Very helpful. I will probably go for the 8700 on Orange, as we have been with them for many years. One more thing, if I may. I get lots of faxes, which are converted into pdf's. How much data do you find yourself using in an average month?

[Osh]

Good morning Guys,

I hope you don’t mind me chucking my 2’ worth in…

We sell BB’s and our biggest seller is the 8700 by a long shot; as others have said the Intel processor in the 8700 is first class and outstrips all other BB devices before it. I also heard back from a friend at Vodafone that they had bench marked the 8700 against the 8707 and it was running faster – the only area that made the 8707 better as that a) it works well as a 3G modem and that, if you’re going to do a lot of web browsing, the 8707 would be the better choice. However, downloading/opening PDF’s there was nothing in it.

HappyDays – if you don’t mind me saying it I’d avoid Orange unless you’ve got a large account and lots of users; there Technical Support have a fraction of the knowledge base and capability of Vodafone – if you’ve got lots of users (i.e. 50+) you’ll be OK but they really are not in the same league as Vodafone or o2 when it comes to BB. We sell for all four networks and Orange are 2 years behind the game; id say Vodafone are first, o2 second T-Mobile sell a lot of BB but nearly always through third parties (as like Orange they don’t have much in-house capability).

If you want a good supplier try using YesTelecom – they have just been bought buy Vodafone, they are B2B only and as of October you’ll be able to get a great bundled deal on free landline and mobile calls. Drop me a mail at if you want some further details…

Mike

[linuxpro]

at the minute i receive around 40 to 50 e-mails a day my limit is 6mb per month and then £2 per mb after that just waiting to see what i will be using after the first month then i will adjust it to suit,

yea have to agree with mike on this one avoid Orange at all costs as when i contacted them they hadn't got a clue what i was on about and if there customer care is like that what will there tech support be like,

I would contact Vodafone direct on 08080 408 408 as they will do anything to get the business and because they don’t have to pay out a commission to any retailers, you can screw them for a better deal also they will try to stick you in a 18 month contract, it's up to you and you can get it on a 12 month but they will stick you for £50 for the 8700, but i went for the 18 month as the 8700 is very well put the together and i had a 7290 for 2 years and it never looked back, just about to put it on e-bay,

On the PDF question I’m sorry but I can’t help you with this one the only thing I would say is if you have a rough idea of the size files that you receive on a daily bases the multiply by 30 + whatever web browsing and e-mails on top = 1 month data used, you can always buy extra data if you think your using more than your limit, I got a tariff £40 per month 200 min + 250 text + 6mbs of blackberry data, and if I use more data than 6mbs it comes out of my 250 text after that I’m charged for it, if your were only sending text based e-mails you would find it very hard to reach the 6mb per month

[Dirky]

Originally Posted by HappydaysAgain

Linux Pro
Many thanks for such a comprehensive reply. Very helpful. I will probably go for the 8700 on Orange, as we have been with them for many years. One more thing, if I may. I get lots of faxes, which are converted into pdf's. How much data do you find yourself using in an average month?

I recently switched from O2 (Treo 650) to T-Mobile 8700g.

I'm paying less with tmobile now and I get 2Gb data useage per month for
£7-50.
I pay £10 per month on top of that for BIS *and* BES ( I run my own BES with Exhcange 2003).
I then pay £25 per month for Flext-25 which gives me 400 mins of calls.

I'm registered as a business user but not on a business tariff, however I do get business support and free voicemail.

You would be hard pushed to get near the 2Gb usage, tmobile class it as "unlimited" , the 2Gb is their "fair usage policy" limit.


Mike

[Osh]

LinuxPro – sounds like you are on Internet Mail; if HappyDays is getting this through his company and on Vodafone Business (with BES) then his total usage is fully inclusive – this includes all email, all downloads, all BB Browsing (careful – NOT WAP browsing) etc….

Dirky – from what I hear in the industry Duetsch Telecom are not too happy with T-Mobile giving stuff away at the prices they’re charging and they are expected to put prices up soon. Again, T-Mobile is all well and good if you don’t need support and you don’t use outside big cities….after that its pants…

Mike

[linuxpro]

yea Mike your right (sorry about the confusion) I have two 8700's one for work on BES which work supply

And a personal one on internet mail on a personal tariff which I pay for because of the IT policy at work,

And yes your are correct on what you say if itxxx8217;s on BES then his total usage is fully inclusive xxx8211; this includes all email, all downloads, not wap browsing ect,

[HappydaysAgain]

Hi Everyone - thank you so much for your thoughts. I have only just got in and read todays posts. This afternoon I purchased 2 x BB 8700f from Orange in Cheapside. One was a free upgrade and the other cost me xxx163;250. Customer service was a total disaster. The shop reserved the BlackBerry's and the boxes were waiting for me. Unfortunately two hours were utilised by the sales person trying to get through on the phone to Orange to do the upgrade. They had four phone lines in the shop - all constantly engaged waiting for Orange to process upgrades. Eventually got throught to an Indian call centre where the Orange operator could not understand the English terminology used by the shop assistant. Farcical. I asked the ' business advisor ' if Orange supplied the server software. Her response - "what's BES?" A total disaster.

Anyway, the only good news was a chap next to me also getting a phone upgrade for his wife. He worked in IT and runs 50 BB 8700's on Orange. He told me what to do, and recommended the device in the short/medium term. Long term he doesn't see a future for RIM as other devices take market share. [ clearly a debatable subject for another day & not here ].

When I get my IT guys to set things up, I'll post an update. In the meantime, thanks once again for everyones advice and thoughts.