Getting a personal Blackberry with a BES plan
 

Hi all

I will soon be installing BES 5.0 environment for my Company where we will be offering a Corporate BES to mainly Personal Blackberry users!?! Don't ask.

I need to get a Blackberry Smartphone that I can get a personal BES plan for (Contract fine, PAYG ideal) so that I can do all the testing to familiarise myself with what users will do\get etc. We are based in the UK.

I have looked and I can't find anyone that does a Pay As You Go deal for BES access (Orange was a candidate but doesn't actually seem to be an option).

Can anyone recommend a provider that offers a personal BES plan for a SmartPhone Blackberry at a reasonable price? Say £30 per month tops

Any advice appreciated.
Tom

I'm taking it (you don't say) that you are in the UK?

There are no PAYgo BES plans that I know of.

Correcto. Yeah I was starting to think that might be the case. Thank you for more or less confirming though.

Any thoughts on the contract query?

We pay O2 £45 per month for unlimited international BES traffic. Think this is on top of any voice/SMS charges.

Thanks guys for responses.

Has anyone checked out the Orange £5 Pay as you go Blackberry offer? I cannot tell whether this would include a BES data plan or not? I've been asked to prove that this offer (buying BB smartphone alongide it for £179) won't allow us to connect it to the corporate BES.

BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120 with £5 a month BlackBerry® Internet Service)

From that link

That is BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service). You need BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Service)

Yeah I know. I just called an "Orange" shop and they said that it will allow me to connect to a corporate BES server as long as my IT team allows it, i.e. as long as I allow it.

I realise that for people that have a contract and use BIS they can upgrade to a BES service. But for the life of me I cant figure out if this PAYG service allows that "upgrade". My employers dont want to take out a contract for the phone hence I'm having to scrape round for a PAYG contract unless I can prove the Orange PAYG doesn't allow BES (or the ability to upgrade to it).

We are going contract. Thank goodness.