BlackBerry mobile hotspot warning in SA

Users can use BlackBerry’s mobile hotspot feature in South Africa, but it may cost them lots of money on ‘out of bundle’ data

Rudolph Muller

October 29, 2012

Vodacom and BlackBerry is currently punting the fact that users on the BlackBerry OS 7.1 platform can connect up to five devices using the new BlackBerry mobile hotspot feature, but this may come at a price.

South African users should be warned that while the mobile hotspot feature is available to them, data usage on this feature will not come from the flat-rated BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). Instead, the BlackBerry hotspot will use the standard internet APN.

This means that users will typically be billed R2 per MB for data when using the BlackBerry hotspot feature – unless they purchased a bolt-on data bundle with lower per-MB rates.

The BlackBerry website promotes its new hotspot feature, but there is no warning to users that the data will be charged at up to R2 per MB when using this functionality.

“Need to connect to the internet but don’t have access to a Wi-Fi hotspot? Then activate Mobile Hotspot on your BlackBerry smartphone and create one of your own,” the South African BlackBerry 7 website states.

“All you need is a 3G network and you can wirelessly connect up to 5 Wi-Fi devices to enjoy continuous, private internet coverage on your laptop or tablet.”