BlackBerry Forums Support Community

cmptekinc · 02-20-2009, 01:01 PM

Guys,

Pardon my ignorance, since this question was probably answered before....
When I spoke with AT&T, they said that they do not offer a Free BES.
I saw a Free BES trial, but at the end you need to buy it.
What`s the best way to get a free BES from AT&T ? Another thing, we have 14 BB users and all of them have their own personal BBs, some of the users are with AT&T while some are with Sprint. I am not positive, but it looks like the users write off their phones as a company expense.
If this is correct, getting a business account would save some money to the company. The best way for me to sell to my management the idea of getting a Business Account is to first get a Free BES from AT&T... Any ideas are highly appreciated.
Again, I apologize if this has already been answered.

murpheous · 02-20-2009, 01:18 PM

IIRC, the free promotion has ended. You got to pay to play now.

skyman84 · 02-20-2009, 01:34 PM

if oyu only have 14 BB users you can opt for BlackBerry Professionsl Server. This is pretty much full BES, just a little lighter and limited to 30 users.

It's Free from the BlackBerry site.

cmptekinc · 02-20-2009, 01:39 PM

Thanks murpheous, appreciate the info. I guess I missed the promo...

Some of my guys were saying that their clients were able to get a Free BES from cellular carrier. When I asked about the details they couldn't collaborate at all....

I guess I will try getting in touch with AT&T sales to find out, but last time it didn't get me anywhere.

Anyone else knows anything about that ?

skyman84 · 02-20-2009, 01:41 PM

BES is a £2000 app, I'v not personally heard of a carrier giving it away free, but I could be wrong.

Like I said before, BPS is more than adiquate for the numbers of users you've got.

cmptekinc · 02-20-2009, 01:43 PM

Skyman84,

Do you need to purchase CALs in order to use BlackBerry Professional Server ?

cmptekinc · 02-20-2009, 01:44 PM

I will check it BPS, looks like a sound solution especially with today`s economy....
Thanks for the info.

skyman84 · 02-20-2009, 01:46 PM

Yes,
When you register for the app on the site, you get one free licence for the server and one free CAL.

As with BES, you're going to need to purchase extra CALS for the other devices. But your carrier might be able to do a good deal for you.

cmptekinc · 02-20-2009, 01:54 PM

Thanks again.

eazyc10 · 02-21-2009, 09:24 AM

FWIW - My company is currently looking at consolidating cell phone plans / devices and we've looked at Blackberries. Both ATT and Verizon have offered free BES and 20 CALS for our purchase. Of course we are activating over 40 new lines (total of 90) so I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it.

bmillington · 02-23-2009, 10:59 AM

I have just got BES for free from Orange UK with 20 free CALS and I am only taking 16 lines.

Remember that the phone companies are struggling just as much as others ATM and so to seal a deal they will throw it in for free! ;)

Phone companies are easy to get things out of at the best of times ;) - Don't let them tell you they wont do it.

Edit: Oh and they actually messed up and I ended up with 60 CALS for free instead of the 20 they offered me!

skyman84 · 02-23-2009, 11:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmillington

I have just got BES for free from Orange UK with 20 free CALS and I am only taking 16 lines.

Remember that the phone companies are struggling just as much as others ATM and so to seal a deal they will throw it in for free! ;)

Phone companies are easy to get things out of at the best of times ;) - Don't let them tell you they wont do it.

Edit: Oh and they actually messed up and I ended up with 60 CALS for free instead of the 20 they offered me!

Whow, free BES with only 16 lines? That's a very good deal! and 60 CALS?!

I don't suppose anyone's got a BES licence laying around after being given it for free!? ;)

bmillington · 02-23-2009, 11:06 AM

Yup. Well they were meant to be giving me 20 CALS but they kept messing me around with SRP keys and every time they did they gave me a new CAL key for 20 CALS and everyone they gave me I added in!

LOL!

skyman84 · 02-23-2009, 11:08 AM

I think you did very well for yourself mate.

Think you could give em a call and wangle another SRP key out of them ;) I'm sure you could manage it! lol

mitchelrl · 02-23-2009, 11:59 AM

There's the BES Express option, but that's only 10 seats.

If you have Exchange 2003, You can configure AT&T BIS to hookup to OWA.

knottyrope · 02-23-2009, 12:16 PM

Express is NLA IIRC.

BIS with OWA will not work if RIM's IP's are firewalled off.

jibi · 02-26-2009, 12:35 AM

If you have a LOT more than 14 devices through a corporate-liable account with any number of certain carriers, then you could very well get a free SRP and CALs from the carrier - afterall, they're making their money on your subscription and have the ability to give away the licenses. However, with just 14 devices, I can see why you got the answer you did, to be honest.

Frank Castle · 02-26-2009, 02:59 PM

I think we add 35 new accounts a day to our BES ..

BBHorrigan · 02-26-2009, 03:08 PM

Sounds like BPS will do everything you need though

sniffs · 02-26-2009, 05:09 PM

I got an email from my account rep that said we had 14 devices ordered this month and if we ordered 6 more, we get a free BES SRP key.

We're in the process of setting up a 2nd BES.. we WERE going to buy the SRP key from Dell..

I just purchased 6 Blackberry Curves at $49 bucks and spent 300 bucks and got a free SRP vs a few thousand for the key.. YAY!

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How to get a Free BES from AT&T