Use a BlackBerry without any help (or charges) from RIM

5 January 2010 by Shaun 10 Comments

as1 I use my iPhone 3G as my work phone, but it has sadly developed a fault and will not connect to any mobile network. My Bold 9700 is used on my personal SIM card for email collection, web browsing etc. and so I was left with a decision to make. I needed a phone quick and so I decided to put my work SIM in the BlackBerry and manage as best I could without BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service). Little did I know that within an hour I would not be using BIS at all and would still have mobile browsing, push email and almost everything else I needed on the same phone. Here is how I did it-

Step 1: Back up your BlackBerry and wipe it of all your data in options / security options / security wipe.

Step 2: Start the BlackBerry clean and use advanced restore in BlackBerry Desktop Manager to re-install the data you need. Do not do a full re-install.

Step 3: Input the GPRS settings for your provider in options / advanced options / TCP/IP.

as2 Step 4: Connect to the internet using BlackBerry Browser via Wi-Fi (GPRS will not work) and download Bolt Browser. This will work fine with your new GPRS settings and no matter how I tried, I could not install Opera Mini.

Step 5: This email solution applies if you have an ActiveSync compatible server and require push email as well as contact and calendar synchronisation. Go to this link and download the free trial of Astra Sync.

Step 6: Setting up server details takes a minute and all you then need to choose is the TCP connection to start synchronising. There are many other settings to choose and these in effect give you much more control than you would get with BIS.

Getting an MS Exchange setup on my BlackBerry is a bonus indeed, but when I saw how it worked I was delighted. The email view is much, much better than the standard BlackBerry messaging app and the ability to handle folders and synchronise my calendar and contacts is an added bonus. Finally I have full MS Exchange on the best hardware I can get (BlackBerry Bold 9700) and this to makes for a near perfect combination.

I did this as a temporary measure, but with Astra Sync I now have a solution I am likely to stick, and one which will save me £5 in BIS charges. At $49 / year I consider Astra Sync to be excellent value when the benefits are considered. Don’t forget that you can use it with BIS and BES as well to in effect have your company and personal emails all delivered to the same device.

10 Comments »

Bob South said:

AstraSync is the best! Worth the money!

# 7 January 2010 at 12:17 am

Opera appoints Lars Boilesen new Chief Executive Officer – 1st Edition » The Mobile Apps Site said:

[...] Use a BlackBerry without any help (or charges) from RIM | PDA-247 [...]

# 16 January 2010 at 8:02 pm

How to use a BlackBerry without charges from RIM « AstraSync said:

[...] “I use my iPhone 3G as my work phone, but it has sadly developed a fault and will not connect to any mobile network. My Bold 9700 is used on my personal SIM card for email collection, web browsing etc. and so I was left with a decision to make. I needed a phone quick and so I decided to put my work SIM in the BlackBerry and manage as best I could without BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service). Little did I know that within an hour I would not be using BIS at all and would still have mobile browsing, push email and almost everything else I needed on the same phone. Here is how I did it…“ [...]

# 22 January 2010 at 5:33 pm

BB Guy said:

If you’re only saving £5 per month over this product, it’s not worth it. Usually with a BIS plan you get unlimited data. With this, you don’t because it’s not from the carrier- it’s a 3rd party app.

# 22 January 2010 at 10:48 pm

Shaun (author) said:

No, I get unlimited data for £5 / month, but BIS costs me £10 with unlimited data so the saving is there. It isn’t huge of course with the price of the app considered, but there is a saving.

# 22 January 2010 at 10:51 pm

Robert said:

If a Gmail user the Enhanced Gmail plugin from RIM lets you:

1. Move items between folders (labels),
2. Flag emails (Star)
3. Sync deleted and read items (one-way BB > Gmail)
4. Sync Address Book (BB OS 5 required)
5. Search the Gmail server for emails

The last one is the big one for me.

# 23 January 2010 at 1:01 am

Zaki Krayem said:

Remember guys that we’re talking about Blackberry in here.
Blackberry holders that will invest in exchange activesync solution are tasks oriented by default.
Astrasync won’t make the big difference until it supports tasks syncing. i don’t know why they still are behind doing this.
i had to purchase notifysync that support email, contact, calendar, tasks and notes syncing.
we, as blackberry users shouldn’t expect less and we have to stand for companies who do not drop full PIM syncing to only support contacts and calendar.

# 23 January 2010 at 9:34 am

Fraser said:

I tried astra sync – in 5 hours I received 10 emails, and it used half my battery, and 30mb of data

I now forward emails to a gmail account, and installed the gmail app for blackberry

# 25 January 2010 at 8:09 pm

Going Google | PDA-247 said:

[...] recently wrote about my experiences moving from BIS on a Bold 9700 to pure GPRS / 3G and how I managed to use [...]

# 28 January 2010 at 4:01 am

Dee said:

Hi, I have few questions: -
1.how many email account astrasync allow you to configure?
2. Does it support google apps? (If I configure my company email to google)
3. Can it recall any email you have in google? (for example if you wipe your device and reinstall astrasync back….currently you can’t do it in BB, once you deleted the account and if you configure it back in BIS it start back from scratch)
4. any issue with the contact and calendar sync? (multiple contact, multiple calendar, etc…)

Thanks,
Dee

# 3 February 2010 at 8:23 am