[stevew]

Anyone know if T-Mobile supports BESX wireless activation? I have one of my users using a Boost mobile BB, and we had to do it using the DM as the wireless activation ports are blocked. Now, we're looking at adding a T-Mobile plan on another device and I need to know before that users leaves for the US, whether I can just have him do a wireless activation - or he needs the DM to do this. I know on Bell in Canada, we didn't need to do anything more than a wireless activation on all of the BB devices.

[knottyrope]

did you try the activation app in app world?

Activating Devices That are Associated With the Bl... - BlackBerry Support Community Forums

[stevew]

That works on carriers that support wireless BESX activations if you have a BIS plan, but not all. Bell does, Boost does not (Boost doesn't support BES at all, but BESX activation works through the DM). You can always activate using the DM...but I want to know if they support wireless activations on BESX with just a BIS plan. I haven't got the phone yet and that's why I was asking the question. I figure someone here must have already done this...

[knottyrope]

never tried boost, try the app in appworld and see if it works.

[stevew]

Boost does, but only through the DM - wired. I'm guessing because they don't have BES plans. I called T-mo and BES-X is supported through BIS, but they can't tell me if I can do a wireless activation...

I have the phone, but have to go into the US To try it and using a Mac Book adds a whole other layer of bullshit to the equation. It's certainly do-able on Mac if wireless OTA isn't supported, but it's a PITA.

[knottyrope]

Did You Try The App In App World?

[stevew]

Yes, on my Curve with Boost and it did not work, but not the fault of the app. In that case, it was a carrier issue. The App works exactly the same as if the device had been carrier-provisioned for a BES...but that's not the issue. I can activate my 9900 OTA with that app, IF and only IF, T-Mobile allows a BES-X OTA activation without actually being on a BES plan.

Here in Canada, I activated several of our users using the app over the BIS plan, but it was on Bell, who supports a BES-X activation over a BIS plan.

My question here has always and only been as to whether T-mo allows for a BES-X OTA activation on a BIS plan...not so much how, that's the easy part!

FWIW, unless you have a BES (carrier) - provisioned device, you need the app to activate OTA, but the app does not guarantee that you can activate OTA...that has to be provisioned by the carrier!

Any carrier who does not offer BES plans will not allow an OTA activation - period. Boost is one such carrier, and I'm sure there are other providers who only offer BIS plans, where one would have the same problem.

Today, any BB can be activated to work on BES-X using only a BIS plan...only difference between would be the capability to activate OTA.

[knottyrope]

have you tried to activate a wiped device on Boost? I am just curious if that works or not.

[stevew]

Yes I did - and it doesn't activate OTA (wiped or otherwise), but DOES activate when connected through the DM (wiped or not).

The reason is this - when a carrier does NOT offer BES plans, the required ports are blocked and the only way to activate it after that - is via the DM, which I knew before I activated the BESX over BIS plan on Boost! It's not an issue if you're connected with the DM and Exchange - in fact with Outlook 2010, you don't even need to be on a VPN for everything to work. If you're on Mac, you have to do this using Windows, since the client for Mac doesn't support BES connections...I'm on a Mac...and if you have shitty WiFi, things get even worse.

Even the BES-X console doesn't see the connected device in most cases...so choices are very limited.

I'm heading into the US tomorrow and will attempt to activate it OTA and see if that works. Since T-mo does offer BES plans, I believe it will activate OTA. Bell does here and activate BES-X users all day log on BIS plans.

I'll post up here tomorrow night and let all know if I was successful or not!

My Boost 8530 is up for sale now - LOL. Hated that phone and their coverage. Plan was good, but the rest was shitty. Maybe I'll get 20 bucks for it - LOL

[stevew]

I got the chance to finally test it all -

1) BES-X activates wirelessly on the T-mobile BIS plan, either OTA or through WiFi, no problem!
2) I was also able to activate through WiFi only with the Mobile Radio turned off, bonus!

Bottom line for anyone on T-mo...BIS plans support BES-X Wireless activations / OTA or WiFi...

By the way, the T-mo BB's are already provisioned for BES, even on BIS plans, so they come preloaded with the Enterprise activation client, not the one from App world that requires the server URL input...but the original client that requires only the e-mail address and activation password.

Works flawlessly and quickly!