[briank5400]

Im in the process of reviewing our current blackberry setup and I was wondering which of the main US carriers (apart from t-mobile which we are using today) have good international roaming... Is anyone aware of any sites comparing vendors/coverage etc?

[dulcamara]

Cingular does it, but is more expensive that Tmobile. We don't have Tmo here at RDU, so Cingular is all there is for me. Once I got it set up correctly, it works fine (tested in Hong Kong, all over Europe and Canada).

I pay $65/month for unlimited international data + $40/month for voice + $20/month for Link2Exchance hosted BES. Gotta have the BES so I don't have to waste several hours/month correcting Cingular's errors in my bill.

In spite of Cingular's poor CS, the international data plan is one of the things I like best about BB.

[padders]

dulcamara,

Do you happen to have a link anywhere to the cingular info on the international data as I can't find it anywhere. You don't happen to know if you can get a blackberry without voice service either do you, as I can't seem to make that happen online.

I was going to use t-mobile but they do not say that data is included, only email, if cingular does say all data is included it would be worth an extra $5 for the piece of mind of knowing I won't suddenly get a $1k bill out of the view for $15/MB GPRS roaming.

[archer6]

This feature is one of the reasons I use Cingular and it works very well. Just call customer service and ask for International Sales.

[dulcamara]

Originally Posted by padders

dulcamara,

Do you happen to have a link anywhere to the cingular info on the international data as I can't find it anywhere. You don't happen to know if you can get a blackberry without voice service either do you, as I can't seem to make that happen online.

Data Connect

is one link to the plan. Take $5/month off if you also have a voice plan. You do not need a voice plan to use a BB with cingular.

Data does not include tethering to your laptop.

[padders]

Wow, cool. I think I may go for this instead of t-mobile given how clear it is.

Couple of things:

- Do you know if you need a SSN to order it online/phone? I am actually a UK citizen moving to Canada for 6 months, I won't step foot in the US on the way. I have a US bank account in California but also another friends with a SSN/Bank account otherwise. T-mobile requires a SSN but would love it if I could avoid having to do that.

- What network does it roam onto in Canada?

- I would get the 8700c. Any idea on what cost to expect? Think its $350 on t-mobile.

- Would it matter if I never turned the blackberry on in the US and first time it was used was in Canada?

Thanks again for your help.

[NJBlackBerry]

Our company uses T-Mobile extensively for US based employees who travel internationally. It is all personal choice; some like Cingular, some like T-Mobile.

Each carrier has a site where they show you the roaming partners by country. Some even issue a spreadsheet (for larger accounts) showing the roaming agreements.

[punkinwing]

We use Cingular domestically with frequest trips to Western EU.. We were using T-Mobile but the domestic service was lousy.. for the best rates, you have to have BOTH plans on each naccount that will be roaing.. International Roaming $%.99/mo and the International calling $3.99/mo...
If you do a lot of canadien Roaming, there is a great plan for that for $9.99 that makes it so it's not roaming!!!!
My experiance is that you should ask numerous people at Cingular until you are satisfied with the answer..