just got off the phone with a rep.

they claim that if you get an email only plan your PIN, SMS, and IM will operate via SMS. and email as data. an SMS unlimited plan is $15 and the email plan is $10 so $25.

and in the BIS plan for $20, Email, PIN, IM operate as data and SMS just SMS.

so it doesnt make sense to go to email only.

can anyone confirm or not whether this is the case.
TIA

is sound cliche, but, it all depends on what you use your device for. i use it, besides phone calls, primarily for email and occasional sms messages. so i personally like the email only plan. i may add teh internets to my bb if i take on a sales job.

another point of interest, if you ungrade to the 4.5 OS on the email only plan, only email embedded images will show on html messages and the not ones hosted on external servers.

To answer your question:

$9.99 Email only is just that email only. I understand PIN and BBM work.

$19.99 BB Data gives you email, PIN, BBM and Internet

There is an SMS based IM program but I would suggest getting the BB Data plan and using BeeJive.

As far as TMob goes they kind of screwed me on that deal. I got my first BB with TMob this past July (first BB and already addicted) and from what they told me is that with email only, that's exactley what you get...email only. I paid for the unlimited plan which is supposed to include unlimited minutes, SMS, MMS and IM. But...IM on BB works on data and NOT SMS technology, so even though I paid for an unlimited plan, because I got a BB I get no unlimited IM.

Stick to the unlimited BB plan and enjoy all of your BB features, because for the extra $10 a month you're going to end up doing it down the road any way.