Vodafone and Blackberry 8800 issues

howelldavis

Dear all,
I've tried in vain to talk to the vodafone support person and all I get is "you must be on pay monthly contract". I hope someone here will help me understand this weird marriage of vodafone and blackberry!!

My brother gave me an unlocked blackberry 8800 that he bought from ebay.co.uk as a birthday present. The phone has the vodafone logo on it and when powered on/off the red vodafone logo can be seen on the screen. So I'm assuming it was previously Vodafone UK.

I live in Dublin and I'm with vodafone IE, pay as you talk. I'm aware that I need a "data plan" (whatever that is ) to use my "smartphone". Honestly, I'm not that savvy for it. All I want to do is use the internet to download some ringtones. Is that too much to ask?
And from what I understand the abundant help on the internet seems to suggest that the Blackberry Maps is free to use? But I can't seem to get the configuration right for it. All I see is the green diagonal lines and the dashboard says "Searching for satellites" for ages. Then it stops.
Also, why can I not use the TeleNav on my phone? What is the difference between that and Blackberry Maps anyway?

I have registered with the BIS here: https://bis.eu.blackberry.com/html?brand=vodauk
When I click on the Send Service Books button on the page, it shows me the message that it was successful, but I don't see nothing on my phone
So I try it from my phone using Options, Advanced Options, Service Books. But the only menu option available here is Close Also I used the Host Routing Table in the Advanced Options and clicked on Register Now. I get a message 'Registration sent', but nothing happens after that!

Please, please, please, someone help me with these issues. I'd be really grateful. Thank you loads.

PS: I also remember registering with Blackberry Owners Lounge here: http://na.blackberry.com/eng/ownerslounge/
And also using my IMEI to register with Vodafone IE.

Rsaeire

While you may have signed up on the BIS UK website and attempted to push the service books to your handset, this would only work if you were using a Vodafone UK sim. As such, you need to be a postpaid customer with Vodafone Ireland, you need to be setup on their Blackberry server, in order for the Vodafone Ireland service books to be sent to your handset, and you need the Blackberry APN to be provisioned on your account.

As you can see, there is little else you can do if you are prepaid and wanting to have Internet and/or MMS capabilities with your Blackberry handset; this would also apply with O2 and with every other mobile network that supports the Blackberry service.

zacseph

The only thing that MIGHT work (and i use that term very loosely) is if you know someone else on vodafone with a blackberry that works - sometimes when you backup a blackberry and restore it to a new handset, it will copy the service books too...
might help you use vodafone live, but anything else will need the blackberry apn on your account and even if you had that, you'd be charged an arm and a leg to use it on ready to go!!

EDIT: vodafone ireland probably won't add you to their bis, but so long as your on vodafone uk's one, they can't - you can only be on one bis at a time...

howelldavis

Thanks guys. Vodafone ie did want me to sign up for a pay monthly account; I understood there was (like you put) no other way!! "Well, if you put it that way", I said, "I'd rather shop around first!"