weighing data plans

[guinda35]

I'm waiting for my 7290 to arrive and am weighing Cingular's data plans. I'm a newbie, and have no idea how to estimate my data needs. Cingular has plans from 5MBs to 60Ms and then 2 cents per KB, and they also have an unlimited data plan.

I expect to receive on average 50 short emails per week, and respond to maybe 10. I will not be doing heavy downloading of documents from my emails, but expect to do moderate web browsing. I won't be doing much, if any, IMs.

Can anyone help me figure out how many MBs I can expect to use -- ballpark?

[Tom]

Attachments are usually your #1 data destroyer.
Next is Browser use, and third is email

I say go with the 20mb plan.. should be your best bet.. doesnt cingular offer blackberry specific plans?

[Mark Rejhon]

Actually, web browser will be your #1 data destroyer, because BlackBerry pre-compresses attachments. So that 100 kilobyte PDF file becomes a 5 to 15 kilobyte text file and you have the "More" system with attachments which downloads in 2 kilobyte chunks at a time.

Because of this, I think most BlackBerry users use up about 10 times more bandwidth through web use than attachment use.

If you don't do any surfing, then 5MB plan is plenty for light use.

But I say, play it on the safe side and go for the 20MB plan for now. However, you might be making an error -- you do not want a regular data plan, you want a BlackBerry data plan, which are priced differently than Cingular's regular plans (I am not aware of a 20MB BlackBerry plan, so that is why I am asking if you are looking at the correct Cingular plans).

[guinda35]

Actually, web browser will be your #1 data destroyer, because BlackBerry pre-compresses attachments. So that 100 kilobyte PDF file becomes a 5 to 15 kilobyte text file and you have the "More" system with attachments which downloads in 2 kilobyte chunks at a time.

Because of this, I think most BlackBerry users use up about 10 times more bandwidth through web use than attachment use.

If you don't do any surfing, then 5MB plan is plenty for light use.

But I say, play it on the safe side and go for the 20MB plan for now. However, you might be making an error -- you do not want a regular data plan, you want a BlackBerry data plan, which are priced differently than Cingular's regular plans (I am not aware of a 20MB BlackBerry plan, so that is why I am asking if you are looking at the correct Cingular plans).

Thanks for the insight. I'm looking at Cingular's website which has an "Xpress Mail With Blackberry Unlimited Plan" for $49.99, with a $36 one time activation fee. Is this the basic data plan that I would need in order to use a BES/MDS host like Mailstreet?