[justin.culp]

I know this is a ton of repeated info but I've been at the Cingular store today (picking up my 8700). I used to be an at&t (that's right...lowercase) and at the store, before they did anything to my account, I popped my at&t card into the new 8700...sure enough, both browsers showed up....

They cut my at&t account off and I put in the Cingular (64) card and wouldn't you know it....it disappeared. However, if I open the Cingular browser then go to bookmarks, I have the Cingular bookmarks and the blackberry bookmarks...hit one of my blackberry bookmarks and it opens up an HTML browser....

So in short, I have the html browser but no icon to get to it....

Here's an email circulating at Cingular (my rep hit me up)



"From: "[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 28 Nov 2005 15:21:56
To:<[email protected]>
Subject: FW: Blackberry 8700 Broswer Issue.







Subject: Blackberry 8700 Broswer Issue.



A concern has been brought to my attention from a customer that the 8700 was advertised as having both Cingular and Blackberry HTML browsers. The device will show both service books, but the BB browser is not there. I contacted RIM and was informed that customers have to have an Enterprise Server to access the BB browser. The customer had heard similar information on a website www.blackberryforums.com/ where this same issue is being experienced by lots of people. Keeping you in the loop."


HOPEFULLY THEY WILL HEAR THIS>>>>>>>>>At least we know they are listening....Cingular that is...

[barjohn]

I have spoken with the supervisor (Harvey) and the technical support person (Rick) at Cingular working on Chris's problem and provided them with my account info so they can compare the two accounts and hopefully figure out why the problems on Cingular. They are also working with RIM to resolve the issue. It seems to primarily affect users on the new 64k Orange SIMS. Any at&t account users do not have the problem.

John

[acoss]

Originally Posted by barjohn

I have spoken with the supervisor (Harvey) and the technical support person (Rick) at Cingular working on Chris's problem and provided them with my account info so they can compare the two accounts and hopefully figure out why the problems on Cingular. They are also working with RIM to resolve the issue. It seems to primarily affect users on the new 64k Orange SIMS. Any at&t account users do not have the problem.

John

Did the provide an estimated timeframe?
I mean this does not sound like a complicated issue...

[justelise]

If Cingular/RIM is able to resolve this for the better, can you (barjohn) post the case number to the forum so that the rest of us can refer to it if we need to? I think it would be of great help, and we wouldn't have to explain ourselves again to another green rep who has no idea what is going on, etc..

[cwosigns]

I have been in touch with the same two people from BB tech support at Cingular, and they are really delving into this issue. I'm pretty confident they're going to figure out a way to bring this to satisfactory resolution.

[barjohn]

Chris (cwosigns) is the person that started the case and can provide the information once he has it. I am just trying to help them solve the issue.

[gadgetman]

I am an attorney. I have just sent the following message to Cingular and RIM.

Dear Sir or Madam:

I understand that you are working on the issue of the availability of the Blackberry Browser on the 8700c.

The Cingular Browser does not handle cookies and websites properly. Non-BES consumers using the Cingular Browser cannot access their personalized websites such as My Yahoo. Also some full websites are unavailable with only the mobile alternatives appearing (such as www.my.yahoo.com and www.bbc.co.uk).

There is a false advertising issue here. The browser was the main selling point for the 8700c. Consumers were told that they would have an HTML browser, not a WAP browser. Even the “Getting Started Guide” manual on page 7 refers to the “Internet Browser” icon (in addition to the Cingular Browser icon) which enables browsing of HTML websites.

I trust that it is not RIM’s policy to exclude non-BES consumers from access to the Blackberry browser and that the omission of the Blackberry browser from the 8700c was an oversight that will be promptly corrected.

From a commercial point of view, I cannot imagine why Blackberry or Cingular would want to provide an inferior browser when a better alternative is available. A poorer browser will cause many people to return their 8700s. That is not in anyone’s interest.

I would be grateful if you would advise me of the situation. Thank you.

[cwosigns]

Bad news guys...

Rick just called me and said that the reason barjohn has it and I don't is because he's Cingular Blue and I'm Cingular Orange. AT&T had a way to provision the use of the BlackBerry browser and Cingular Orange doesn't. He said he doesn't even know if it's something that Cingular is going to ever offer.

He sent an email up the chain and is going to try to get a response as to what Cingular is going to do regarding this issue. I advised him that these 8700's are flying off the shelves, and that a lot of people are discovering that they're not getting the functionality that was advertised. He said he'd let me know something once he gets a response.

This is very disappointing. Advertising something that they're apparently "unable" to deliver. Not a smart idea.

[DaMaDo]

Typing this on my new 8700. I have 2 bwosers on the home screen with just BIS. I wish I knew how to move my cursor back without deleting heh. The options screen has 3 browsers listed for some reason. I was worried about my browser when I saw this thread as I have the orange/white sim from my treo. Am I lucky or is this problem just for a select few sims?

[gbtherula]

I spoke with a Chris (I don't know his last name) at Cingular about 4 hours ago and he got a RIM rep on the phone with me. Apparently, the Blackberry Browser is only available to BES users. However, there is an internet browser (that supports html) aside from the cingular browser that is available to non-BES users. In order to get this, a Cingular customer service rep has to provision it on your account from their end. They tried to do this on the phone with me by sending me a service book for it, however it didn't push down to my 8700. They said it may take several hours to get the service book and if I don't have it after several hours, that I should call up and see what is the issue. I didn't have it after 2.5 hours, so I called and they said to give it a few more hours. So I am still waiting without it...However, they did say that it is possible. I'll keep you all posted...

[richard371]

There used to be an old RBRO shortcut to change the browser to html & wml instead of wml only but it does not seem to work with this version.

[dolo]

I wish everyone best of luck in regards to this issue.

This my fellow bb loyalists is the power of forums!

Thanks to everyone involved trying to push this through.

Regards,
dolo

[cwosigns]

I would like to say thanks to everyone who has shared their information regarding this topic. The internet is an amazing thing (even though we can't access it on our 8700's). Prior to the internet, how did people support each other when they got effed over?

[wallyn]

If you have an AT&T sim (ie you have a blue plan) the data guys will push it to you. I just called and got it done and yes delta.com opens perfectly.

[acoss]

Originally Posted by cwosigns

I would like to say thanks to everyone who has shared their information regarding this topic. The internet is an amazing thing (even though we can't access it on our 8700's). Prior to the internet, how did people support each other when they got effed over?

it seems so simple to resolve, there's got to be a way.

[pavirginia]

we can start a petition and have gadgetman lead the legal charge!

[justin.culp]

I'd sign that!!!!!!!!! This is seriously lame!!

[cwosigns]

I'm going to wait and hear what kind of response Rick (Cingular BB support) gets from his email to the higher-ups. If it's not to my satisfaction, then I'll consider pursuing it further. It's inexcusible in this day and age to advertise something and then not provide it, considering I plunked down $450 for the device and $45/month for data.

[acoss]

Originally Posted by cwosigns

I'm going to wait and hear what kind of response Rick (Cingular BB support) gets from his email to the higher-ups. If it's not to my satisfaction, then I'll consider pursuing it further. It's inexcusible in this day and age to advertise something and then not provide it, considering I plunked down $450 for the device and $45/month for data.

i don't know if this is a stupid suggestion but here it goes,
since they say that the only way to get the bb browser is thru bes, what if we temporarely activated the bb with bes, have the necessary service books and settings provisioned, and the de-activate from bes. Would you think this could work?..sorry again , maybe just a stupid suggestion

[cwosigns]

I have no knowledge of BES at ALL. Someone with more experience can comment maybe.