BlackBerry soft lock conundrum
It has emerged that both MTN and Vodacom are suspending data services for BlackBerry contracts when users reach their mandatory or self imposed soft locks.
South African BlackBerry users pay R59 monthly as part of the BlackBerry Internet Services (BIS) package offered by both providers. This entitles the user to unlimited internet access within the boundaries of the BlackBerry APN. Any data usage incurred as part of this package is not separately billed – this includes a push email service as well as selected internet browsing, applications and satellite navigation.
MTN and Vodacom have however confirmed that BlackBerry users are being cut off from this data service in the event that the contract falls into a mandatory or soft lock.
According to Nicolene Visser of Vodacom “soft locking can be applied to a Contract SIM card and can be defined as the locking of a Contract SIM card to disable outgoing communication (voice, SMS and data) from the SIM card, when a predefined usage limit has been reached.”
There are three recognised types of soft locks. These include a mandatory usage limit (imposed by the provider as a precaution against fraud when opening a new contract), an account in arrears soft lock and a voluntary usage limit which is set by the customer.
In theory these soft locks should not affect data for BlackBerry usage due to the prepaid nature of the service. Despite this Vodacom and MTN have acknowledged that within the billing system a soft lock suspends all outgoing activity on the phone, including BlackBerry data services.
According to MTN Manager for Brand and Communication, Veli Mabena, this is due to a lack of differentiation within the billing system.
“This is because there is no way of separating the service from another, suspensions happen on an account level on not on a bearer (service) level. The reason for suspensions are normally due to credit/bill limits on the account level and the objective of the suspensions are to avoid further costs being incurred.”
“It is not technically possible to suspend the BlackBerry service without suspending the data service,” Mabena added.
Vodacom echoed this, adding that soft locks applied to any outgoing activity.
No refund
When asked whether BlackBerry users would be refunded for days in which data services were suspended Mabena simply replied “no”. Vodacom did not respond to this question.
Mabena did however add that MTN would be willing to look into data suspensions regarding BlackBerry users.
“The current suspensions process is a MTN credit management policy. The suspension of individual services can be done manually but is not linked to credit/bill limits. MTN will investigate the feasibility of automatic service suspensions and the rules that govern these suspensions,” sais Mabena.
BlackBerry soft lock conundrum << Discussion
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