Comments on: BlackBerry Bold launches in South Africa

By: Martoinette Burger

Martoinette Burger — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 13:38:10 +0000

We are a Namibian based cellular company that are interested in the supply of Blackberry’s to Namibian customers. Can we apply to become a dealer of Blackberry? What are the criteria as well as the terms and conditions involved?

Your reply will be highly appreciated.

By: infs

infs — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 07:33:26 +0000

It is absolutely imperative that this is done for any BlackBerry Device.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:50:55 +0000

I have it via the BIS Admin Portal, dont post here.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:46:14 +0000

Sure… is it OK to leave my email here?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:31:05 +0000

Ok, See the difference…. Vodacom has the option, MTN Does not but not sure if this is specific to you or a Global BIS Admin option. I dont have a MTN sim avaialble right now to check, all booked out. We can try re-create your account…. If so we can continue this offline off of this post via Email.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:20:13 +0000

Strange, I cannot even do the same from the Admin Portal, which is possible as I have done that many times before. May have to re-create it all.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:29:30 +0000

when I create an account it asks for the PIN and that is where it tells me it is already registered…

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:14:46 +0000

It is registered because you have an account setup already, which was done via the device. If you create an account you will disable the autologin from the device when you go via the Mobile Email Settings homescreen icon.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:58:36 +0000

Your device is registered with a User Identifier only. Create a Username and Password via http://mtn.blackberry.com Long term this will best for Management…. BIS 2.6 however will cater for some additional features on that are currently only available via a desktop login.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:44:57 +0000

PIN: 256B0A41

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:38:01 +0000

Did you at any point connect to the BIS Portal via the Mobile Email Settings Link on the device? This will register an Identifier against the BIS System. What is your PIN? I can check.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:34:32 +0000

Great. Am busy downloading. Also any idea why MTN claim that my pin is already registered? I don’t remember registering it?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:02:04 +0000

It will be both. Have you upgraded the Device code at all? It is absolutely imperative that this is done for any BlackBerry Device. Shipping code is often full of little bugs. Here is the MTN Link for Code (Down Below) if you can download, Keep in mind BB.com throttle there traffic, so on a 2mb+ dsl which I have I can only get 18kb/s out of them. The MTN Office in Mt Edgecombe (Think you were from Durb’s if I remember correctly), should be able to provide the newest version, Dont rely on the stores but you can try them if you want, Upgrading yourself will save you time in having to send it and wait for days, and if you ever need to reload it again you can. The below version also may resolve some issues with Reconciliation when on 3G (Seen more in BES Environments).

# File name: 9000M_PBr4.6.0_rel365_PL4.0.0.183_A4.6.0.216_MTN_-_South_Africa.exe
# File size: 95.84MB

MTN:

MTN Latest Approved / Launched Software:
https://www.blackberry.com/Downloads/entry.do?code=0E087EC55DCBE7B2D7992D6B69B519FB

By: Bevan

Bevan — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:46:00 +0000

Me again…

Had the phone 2 months and now I keep getting ‘Call Failed’ errors. After which I can not make or receive calls (and I think emails too). I then have to pull the battery out and restart the device… which seems a little ‘Flintstones’ to me especially for a R7000 device? Any idea if this a phone error or good old MTN?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:02:49 +0000

No problem at all.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 09:01:02 +0000

OH! Great. Thanks for you help!

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:57:06 +0000

No, Its only for management of the accounts you have associated to your BlackBerry. Nothing really changes. The ‘Mobile Email Settings’ homescreen shortcut is a browser link and has no bearing on the logging in or security enabling of the device itself. So where you would click on that and it would automatically just login to the BIS Management console, it would now prompt you to login. So going back the Signature management, this can only be adjusted or removed via logging into the Desktop based BIS Portal.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:47:47 +0000

Sorry for all the questions…

so does that mean I will need to login every time I retrieve my email?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:43:34 +0000

The Auto-login is on the device when you create and setup the accounts via the devices ‘Mobile Email Settings’ homescreen shortcut. So by creating the username for the Desktop based BIS portal, this will stop the device auto-logging in directly and will then present you with a login page. Its a minor con and having a full qwerty keypad it is not generally a huge issue to now login via the ‘Mobile Email Settings’ homescreen shortcut to manage any mail accounts.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 08:24:14 +0000

Thanks Gareth,

Disabling Auto-login does what exactly?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:58:57 +0000

Sorry typos… ‘username and password created for the site’ and ‘then you will need create one on the link above.’

By: Gareth

Gareth — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 17:56:43 +0000

Goto http://mtn.blackberry.com and login with the username and password vreated for the site. If you did not do this via the BB BIS Portal and created the account from the device then you will need create one on the at the link above. Use your device PIN and IMEI, this will Associate the username to the Identifier used for auto-login from the device. Note there are pros and cons to this, by creating an account you disable the auto-login via the device, the pro is you have full control over the BIS options such as Signatures, filters, etc.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:55:38 +0000

Any idea how I change my email signature on the BB Bold? Blogs tell me to log on to the carriers website and do it? How do I go about this on MTN? Or am I stuck with…’Sent from my Blackberry’

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:47:55 +0000

GPS is non billable as is for any GPS device. Its the software you use that will be a deal breaker. Premium apps such as Telmap require BIS-B, as will any solution that MTN goes for. Nav4all will have this option in its Connection settings, auto in most cases will work via the BIS-B browser but I set it to BIS-B explicitly regardless.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:25:50 +0000

Excellent thanks for the info… what catergory does the GPS fall into?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 11:47:37 +0000

Not sure about the rest, try not to deal with that.

As for Bolt On, it covers the following:
1. All Email
2. All Browsing via the Internet Browser(BIS Browsing)
3. Pin Messaging

These are non-billable as additional costs.

The following are Billable:
1. Phone Calls
2. SMS
3. MMS
4. Browsing via the wap browser (labeled: MTN)

To ensure your browser is set correctly:
Open Settings or Options | Open Adnvanced Options | Open Browser | change ‘Browser config’ to Internet Browser.

The above path should be with in reason the same on the Bold

For Bookmarks you create ensure that the Bookmark is set to use the Internet Browser.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:49:48 +0000

As long as it is not just BlackBerrys… then the pressure will surely come from all providers…

One last thing… this R69 data bolt on for the BB’s – do you perhaps know what exactly that covers?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:40:27 +0000

Well, that is correct, it has GPS. In the past 6 months or so, in fact less, I have tested three products with MTN and they cannot get anything finalised. I have been through Telmap, Garmin and one other(can’t remember the name).you’re best bet right now is to try Nav4all, its free but a cumbersome product.

By: Bevan

Bevan — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 10:12:01 +0000

I am with MTN and was sold the device having being told it did turn by turn… I wonder how long MTN are going to take with a solution… would this solution effect all brands of phone offering a satnav option? i.e. Nokia etc… or just Blackberry?

By: Gareth

Gareth — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:51:59 +0000

If with MTN then no luck, they still trying to get their act together with a solution. If with Vodacom then Satnav will be the solution, there should be a download icon for it, it may also not be setup for virtual preload between Vodacom and RIM, you may need to call them to find out.