Using BlackBerry Messenger while roaming internationally

[Dovi]

My parents are leaving for Hong Kong on Friday for two weeks and were wondering whether they'll be able to use BBM in Hong Kong to avoid costly SMSes back home to me in Jo'burg. They'll be buying sim cards there as well as taking their South African ones. The thing we're unsure of is if they buy pre-paid sim cards in China will they still be able to use BBM and just pay local data costs there, or will their BIS service through MTN remain active even when roaming? If so, what costs will be involved?

 

[bwana]

Unless the Chinese SP provides blackberry service on PAYG then you wont have BIS. If they do then your folks will have to go through all the rigmarole of registering their handset as well as setting up all their email accounts again. The handset may even be network locked. (I know they're not supposed to be but I've yet to be able to get a SA blackberry working overseas.)

PIN messages count as standard data rates when roaming.

 

[Dovi]

I'm heading to the UK for two weeks on Sunday and having a bit of difficulty establishing how to use my BlackBerry services there (BlackBerry Maps, browsing, BlackBerry Messenger). I'm not planning on using it in conjunction with my MTN contract set on roaming. I know that Orange offer a BlackBerry PAYG service, and Vodafone offer a Pay Monthly service which I can use with a BlackBerry bolt-on. Neither Vodafone, Orange nor MTN have been able to confirm whether I'll be able to simply activate the UK BIS enabled simcard and pop it into my SA BlackBerry, or if I'll first need to call MTN to release my PIN on their RIM server (effectively cancelling my SA BIS subscription) so that the PIN can be assigned to the UK network's RIM server.

Anyone have a solution for me?

 

[CAPS LOCK]

@ dovi, As far as I know, your PIN can't be active on two different carriers, you will have to de-activate your PIN on MTN, then register the PIN in the UK. If you don't have any ****@mtn.blackberry.com e-mail accounts set to push to your device, then I don't see an issue, 'coz any other e-mail accounts can be set-up with your new carrier. Don't forget to de-register in UK, otherwise you'll then be sitting with a problem here.