Blackberry BIS stealing my money...

[SAdata]

I am currently on a topup R100 contract on MTN on a blackberry. My fee per month includes the phone, R100 airtime a month, 25 sms's and BIS - "worth" R59 a month - so the full BIS service, not one of their silly, email only etc. ones.

Up until a few months ago I was happy. But recently it seems like money keeps trickling away from my balance. Even if I don't call or anything airtime still disappears. I know MTN charges for some data - apparently certain apps use data. But the only apps i really use are whatsapp and twitter for blackberry. WHY does my data disappear. Even occasionally if I browse Facebook through the webbrowser it uses data?? wtf

[Ghost29]

My girlfriend has noticed this with Vodacom as well.

[AniV]

Solution:

Uninstall MTN Contract - Install 8ta!

[robertwj]

Happened to me loads of times. Mtn are useless

[xeslaro]

Here goes. I will illustrate what happens in my case: (this is a controlled test)

My USSD showing credit:







I invoke an app that I know uses the myMTN apn (the money spinner for empten)








My engineering screen now confirms that I am running two APN's concurrently:
Note the blackberry.net and myMTN APN's.








to be continued.......

[xeslaro]

All the while my blackberry is showing me that I am on BIS network, the EDGE in capital letters (BIS)







After a few seconds of the app running, I do another USSD check on balance.

[xeslaro]

Had I not been inside my engineering screen, I would be oblivious to this activity and my balance shrinking without my knowledge.

What I do: I kill this offending service book: highlighted in blue.

[xeslaro]

hope this helps OP....

EDIT:

There are APPS that randomly use the myMTN APN without my knowledge, and the only time I know is when I peek into that engineering screen, which should look like this all the time.

[noswal]

Log in to https://active.mtn.co.za it shows your billed and unbilled balances. When I am in a 3g reception area I then also get the BB BIS symbol next to it.

[Sensorei]

I must be one of the few who has actually benefitted from an MTN screwup. When my blackberry contract was up I switched over to prepaid. They stopped debiting my account, but forgot to stop my BIS so I got free BIS for about 8 months before they must have caught on.

[joelus]

Check that 'APN settings enabled' is unchecked on your blackberry - under tcp/ip settings

[xeslaro]

Check that 'APN settings enabled' is unchecked on your blackberry - under tcp/ip settings

That makes little difference. There are apps that use that WAP2 transport service book (myMTN) whether you have "APN settings" enabled or not (stealing your money), Mxit and news24 being some of the culprits. Somehow my BB "learns" that I dont want to use that APN, after "killing" that service book, and now most my apps use the blackberry.net APN. Looking into engineering screen, I am able to ascertain which APN is in use, and I promplty close the mtMTN tunnel if it has been invoked by any one app.

[joelus]

That makes little difference. There are apps that use that WAP2 transport service book (myMTN) whether you have "APN settings" enabled or not (stealing your money), Mxit and news24 being some of the culprits. Somehow my BB "learns" that I dont want to use that APN, after "killing" that service book, and now most my apps use the blackberry.net APN. Looking into engineering screen, I am able to ascertain which APN is in use, and I promplty close the mtMTN tunnel if it has been invoked by any one app.

The OP was complaining about whatsapp and twitter for blackberry as well as browsing Facebook was using data, which shouldn't be happening. Unchecking use apn settings will fix this. Other apps may not be affected by this setting but they are not part of the blackberry service which doesn't cover all internet access.

[xeslaro]

The OP was complaining about whatsapp and twitter for blackberry as well as browsing Facebook was using data, which shouldn't be happening. Unchecking use apn settings will fix this. Other apps may not be affected by this setting but they are not part of the blackberry service which doesn't cover all internet access.

+1

I get what you mean. It should be unchecked by default.