[Les Armitage]

Any idea who's supplying an 8700 in the UK please

[NJBlackBerry]

T-Mobile has announced it, but I don't know if it is available yet.

[jax]

T-mobile, O2 and Vodafone

T-mobile have announced it. O2 have it on their web site and Vodafone have it in their system (if you go into a Vodafone shop it shows stock - unclear if you can actually buy one yet!).

[BBAdmin]

We have them on Vodafone and O2

[astro_warp]

Originally Posted by Les Armitage

Any idea who's supplying an 8700 in the UK please

T-Mobile have literally just launched it but they have no stock.

[llotse]

Just ordered mine and promised delivery for tomorrow on T-Mobile and Scancom, we will see

[tall_paul_2000]

I ordered from T-Mobile yesterday - spoke to an extremely helpful lady there and they now have them in stock and will be delivered on Tuesday morning. They are also availble to consumers too, rather than just business customers which was their original communication.

[llotse]

Mine arrived as promised on Saturday. Bought from Scancom on T-Mobile. Working perfectly and synced with my MAC using PocketMac. Even looks good in the T-Mobile colour and have installed the MacBerry theme which is great.

[anthonyjhicks]

Cancel those Voda, O2 and T-Mobile orders! Orange has just announced the rollout of their EDGE network in the UK with 300 base stations already online and 1,500 more coming. Orange Business indicates 8700 available by end of Feb 06.

Orange launched the UK’s first live EDGE network

[llotse]

Orange only supports enterprise on the blackberry not POP3 or IMAP, thats why I have just had to change to T-Mobile being a small business with IMAP. Unless of course they are about to change that too, if so I wish they had told me when I got my PAC code last Friday!

[BBAdmin]

I don't get your point - you seem to think that Orange has significantly more coverage than any other network in the UK???? You also need to be aware of tariff offerings as, to a business rolling out x number of handsets, running costs will be a primary consideration. Orange don't have the best track record when it comes to implementing and supporting technologies and in my experience their tariff offerings have often been difficult to decipher and, as a network, they are generally slower than other netowrks at introducing new devices in to the market.

[anthonyjhicks]

Originally Posted by llotse

Orange only supports enterprise on the blackberry not POP3 or IMAP, thats why I have just had to change to T-Mobile being a small business with IMAP. Unless of course they are about to change that too, if so I wish they had told me when I got my PAC code last Friday!

Certainly this is the case via Orange Corporate 50+ employees where they have a minimum purchase of 15 devices etc. But they sent me to the Orange Business Advisor shop where they could apparently. Although I'm still not sure if the sales monkey I spoke to had his facts straight. So I guess you've done a fair bit of digging and not found an Orange UK branded web client?

[anthonyjhicks]

Actually, just found the url for the Orange UK BlackBerry Web Client so presumably you can use this to setup your IMAP/POP3.

http://www.blackberry.orange.co.uk/

[anthonyjhicks]

Originally Posted by BBAdmin

I don't get your point - you seem to think that Orange has significantly more coverage than any other network in the UK???? You also need to be aware of tariff offerings as, to a business rolling out x number of handsets, running costs will be a primary consideration. Orange don't have the best track record when it comes to implementing and supporting technologies and in my experience their tariff offerings have often been difficult to decipher and, as a network, they are generally slower than other netowrks at introducing new devices in to the market.

Not sure who you were replying to there BBAdmin, but if it's too me, my point is that they are offering EDGE, and I live in London their prime market so it's a no brainer for me. With no other carriers even hinting at EDGE, it's the only option if you want to fully utilise the high-speed data capabilities of the 8700 in the UK. Full-marks to Orange, they certainly seem to pushing the technical boundaries here in supporting both UMTS and EDGE even if it is just to plug gaps in their 3G coverage for UMTS devices that offer EDGE fallback. Eitherway, the 8700 benefits from the EDGE coverage while everyone else crawls along on GPRS.

[saldous]

Its on the O2 UK web site: http://www.my-blackberryfromo2.com/8700g.asp?page=8700g

[taylor]

Orange don't have the best track record when it comes to implementing and supporting technologies

Agreed, and whilst on the subject why are Orange the UK only network not to offer BB to average consumers?

[llotse]

Originally Posted by anthonyjhicks

Certainly this is the case via Orange Corporate 50+ employees where they have a minimum purchase of 15 devices etc. But they sent me to the Orange Business Advisor shop where they could apparently. Although I'm still not sure if the sales monkey I spoke to had his facts straight. So I guess you've done a fair bit of digging and not found an Orange UK branded web client?

After spending a good deal of time on the phone with Orange and pointing out to them that my average £500 a month bill would have to go elsewhere they still could not offer me a Blackberry that supported IMAP or POP. I had no choice but to go elsewhere (T-Mobile). But as you point out who knows which one of the sales team we spoke to was right? I would not like to bet on either!

[anthonyjhicks]

Originally Posted by llotse

After spending a good deal of time on the phone with Orange and pointing out to them that my average £500 a month bill would have to go elsewhere they still could not offer me a Blackberry that supported IMAP or POP. I had no choice but to go elsewhere (T-Mobile). But as you point out who knows which one of the sales team we spoke to was right? I would not like to bet on either!

Wow, that's an appallingly bad experience. 500 per month bills are a total rip-off. BBAdmin has a good point on watching the tariffs then. Ouch. Definitely going to wait for a few more weeks until they get their pricing and plans out. We'll see, given your experience you've definitely tempered my enthusiasm for switching from O2 where I currently enjoy flat rate and both BES and web client access. Dare I say it.. give it a few more weeks and we'll be able to have a good look at the 3G capable Nokia E61 ;)

[llotse]

Originally Posted by anthonyjhicks

Wow, that's an appallingly bad experience. 500 per month bills are a total rip-off. BBAdmin has a good point on watching the tariffs then. Ouch. Definitely going to wait for a few more weeks until they get their pricing and plans out. We'll see, given your experience you've definitely tempered my enthusiasm for switching from O2 where I currently enjoy flat rate and both BES and web client access. Dare I say it.. give it a few more weeks and we'll be able to have a good look at the 3G capable Nokia E61 ;)

The high bills were legit and due to me travelling and using my phone constantly abroad, all part of the business expense I am afraid. I don't think Orange are any more expensive than anyone else, its just that I wanted Blackberry and they could not provide it to me. I am hoping the Blackberry will bring my data bills down considerably but we shall see.

[llotse]

Don't you just love customer service? I have been told this morning that T-Mobile do not allow incoming text messages from a network in Thailand called AIS. As most of my Thai customers are on this network that is very bad! Blackberry is going back and I will have to wait for vodafone.