Hello! I'm new to the forum and new to the Blackberry. I just got an 8820 through AT&T. I initially called them to cancel my account, and they offered me a deal to stay since I've been with them so long. I told the rep I wanted a wifi phone so I could use it to check email and basic web stuff when I was near a hotspot. I was told the 8820 would do this. I was told I would not need a data plan to use the wifi.

Well I got the phone today and couldn't get it to connect to my home network. I called AT&T and the sales rep told me it only works with the BB plan. I said if I had the plan I wouldn't need the wifi and that's not what I was told initially. At that point I got a little less pleasant on the phone.

He connected me to tech support, and she told me that there is nothing that says a data plan is necessary to use the wifi. She also said they could not help me get it to work and then gave me the support number for BB. I haven't talked to anyone at BB yet since there is a charge and I couldn't find a prompt for my type of issue.

So my question is (4 paragraphs later) is it possible to connect to a wifi network without a data plan? If so how? Should I just send it back and go with something else?

Sorry to the long post and thanks in advance!

Did you turn the Wifi on?

lol

Yes, you can connect to a wifi network but you can't get push email, etc. You can browse the web with the wifi browser.

Yes the wifi is on. The BB recognizes my home wifi network too. But instead of connecting it shows the yellow circle with a dash in it and the wifi symbol is grey. Also what is "Data Services" and what is "Moble Network"? I'm wonder if I should disable one of those settings to prevent any data usage charges. Thanks again!

Also how do you know if you're transferring data via wifi or edge?

You need data services turned on. Without a BB data plan your wifi logo will always be grey. You should be able to use the wifi browser to browse through your wifi. From the browser, hit menu and select Go To. Then hit menu and select "Change Browser" and change it to wifi browser. Try going to a site.

You can set it to always use the wifi browser by going to Options >Advanced Options >Browser and setting the wifi browser to be the default browser.

If you don't have a BB data plan you won't be getting your data over edge.

Even the wifi enabled BB is not really designed to be used without a BB data plan.

Thanks for the quick reply John! I understand that I'm not getting much of the full potential without a BB plan, but as long as I can check my email via yahoo, and such, I'll be happy for now. Can I only use the default browser with wifi and no BB plan, or can I download Opera for wifi use? Thanks again!

You can't use Opera with wifi only. You do have to use the built in browser.