I have around 30 BlackBerry's all using BES data plans running on BES 4.0. We have negotiated a new contract with the network, which comes into affect in a few weeks. The new contract has all devices using a BIS only data plan.
I have built a new, separate BES Express server (5.0.3) and migrated one user across using the transporter tool. The migration went well, and everything appears to be working fine.
What I'm not sure of is whether the device I migrated is talking to BESX over BES or BIS? Or doesn't it matter? When the time comes that BES gets turned off, will the device continue working as normal?
Under Service Books on the device I migrated it show lots of [Desktop] service books, so I presume the device is still utilising the BES connection.
Has anyone else gone from BES to BIS seamlessly? I tried googling this question but despite reading numerous posts I can't find a specific answer to this scenario.
I have never done this, but I think when you switch off BES, it will just stop working and you have to do an activation via BIS to get the correct service books.
I would definitely first test this, for example by replacing the BES+BIS SIM card with a BIS only test SIM card on your BB.
He will see the new SRP as he has already migrated to the new BES Express server. But as soon as he switches off the BES data plan (which he hasn't done yet), he will lose connectivity, i.e. the service book will not work anymore.
Thanks for the replies. I have now migrated two other devices over (3 in total). So far so good. It should be easy for me to migrate back if I need to.
Anyway, to answer your questions, when I look in Service Books, I see lots listed but nothing called "SRP" or with SRP in the square brackets [ ]
So, I have my blackberry using a BES+BIS sim card talking to the new BES Express 5 server. When I look in Service Status, I see (as expected)...
BlackBerry Internet Service = Mobile Network
BlackBerry Enterprise Service = Mobile Network
I found someone in the office who has their own personal blackberry using just a BIS service, so I borrowed their device. First, I looked under Service Status to confirm it was BIS-only...
BlackBerry Internet Service = Mobile Network
BlackBerry Enterprise Service = Not Connected
Excellent. I took out their sim and put it in my Blackberry, waited for the phone to boot up and network connection activity to settle down. I then went into Service Status and observed...
BlackBerry Internet Service = Mobile Network
BlackBerry Enterprise Service = Mobile Network
huh?! I would not have expected BES to show connected. Does email work? Yes, emails are still coming into my BlackBerry fine.
I then moved myself back to the old BES 4 server, knowing this should break the connection because BES doesn't talk to BIS devices, right? (see link below). I moved myself back using the Transporter tool, waited a few minutes then sent a test email from my BB. It arrived in my mailbox and was delivered back to my device!! Argh! This is ridiculous.
I put the sim back in the users device and checked the Service Status again. It showed, as expected, BlackBerry Enterprise Service = Not Connected.
I am referring to this RIM KB21209 when I say that a BIS data plan should not successfully communicate with a BES server.
I don't know what's going on here. I thought the type of data plan would restrict a BIS-only users'device from communicating to a full BES server, but this does not seem to be the case. It seems the device 'remembers' it has previously been linked to a full BES and will happily to continue communicating over that channel. Odd.
I'll keep testing various things and post them here.
PS: As a side point, I noticed when receiving emails from the BES Express server, there was about a 10 second delay between emails hitting my Outlook inbox and hitting my device. When on BES 4, the delay in barely 1-2 seconds. Anyone else noticed this?? Is there an explanation for it??