We are using Blackberry Server Express and have a company account with Vodafone UK - I have seven users on BESX all with the Vodafone BES (£28 Per Month) enabled on their accounts.

I have one user who has a personal account with Vodafone so they phoned up themselves to activate the Blackberry Service on their account - as they are a personal user Vodafone will not provide them with a BES Service, only BIS.

I didn't know this when I activiated the user and their activation on my BES Server went through just fine - they can Send and Receive emails. Contacts and Calendar sync just fine.

So I am now confused as I was given to understand the BIS users could not be activated on a private BES Server - however this user is working just fine.

Is this something that BlackBerry will "notice" or have we got away with paying less (£10 per month) for a BES Service ?

In this case, and depending on their provisioning configuration, you may have gotten away with an error on their part. With TMO, Cingular, etc. here in the States, provisioning for a BIS account will not allow enterprise/BES activation.

you can run BES and BIS on the same device but it is not advisable. I've done this with several devices on different networks here in the US. you may have a problem when running third party apps if both are setup. I have experienced this personally with applications the engineers create where I work.

"BIS users could not be activated on a private BES Server"
they can

"Is this something that BlackBerry will "notice" or have we got away with paying less (£10 per month) for a BES Service ?"
I'm fairly certian they will not notice but it's always a possibility.

Not advisable by whom? You?
There's nothing wrong with doing this, and RIM doesn't discourage it.

No, not usually. When the device is provisioned for BIS service, it typically cannot be activated on a BES. This is why jibi suggested that they may have gotten away with an error on the carrier's part.

"Not advisable by whom? You?
There's nothing wrong with doing this, and RIM doesn't discourage it."

yes, by me. I am offering what I know from my own experience and I qualified that remark by stating that some third party apps may have issues if you do this (especially if they are designed to use the BIS transport protocol, again from my own experience).

"No, not usually. When the device is provisioned for BIS service, it typically cannot be activated on a BES. This is why jibi suggested that they may have gotten away with an error on the carrier's part."

What keeps it from being able to activate on a BES after it's been provisioned for BIS?

I have some experience in this area so please don't make it appear that my advice is invalid. I am also here to learn because I realize I don't know everything. If you could offer more clarity here, I would certainly welcome it. You stated that RIM doesn't discourage it but you also stated that it typically can't be done. This seems contradictory to me.

nsquark, you're completely confusing two different concepts.
The carrier can put different types of data plans on a user account. There's typically a Blackberry "Personal" Data Plan (BIS) and a Blackberry "Enterprise" Data Plan. (BES)

If the user has a BIS data plan on their account... then the device cannot be activated on a BES.

If the user has a BES data plan on their account, then they can activate the device on a BES, as well as utilize BIS functionality.

You stated that RIM doesn't discourage it but you also stated that it typically can't be done. This seems contradictory to me.
It's seems contradictory because you're misunderstanding what is being said here.
A user can have BIS and BES active on a device with no problems at all... but only if they have BES data plan. If the user has a BIS data plan, then they probably can't activate on a BES at all.

penguin, thank you for clearing that up. I guess it's true that you learn something new everyday. I thought there was just one type of Blackberry data plan and the user could either activate on BES, BIS or both.