Using Bold as a Bluetooth modem with MacBookPro!

Ok so the picture isn't very clear but you may be able to make out that I'm connected to the internet on my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.5.4) via a Bluetooth connection with my Bold (4.6.0.147)

You need to use the modem script for the Curve which you can find here together with some setup instructions.

Since I am running on Celcom, the telephone number should be "celcom3g" and the account name is "guest" and password is also "guest".

I'm not sure if it works with a Bold on the Maxis network but it should. At any rate,I know the telephone number should be "unet" but I'm not sure about the username and password. If someone on Maxis can confirm that it does work, that would be great. Also don't forget to tell us what accountname and password to use.

Many thanks to my mate Moorey, the proprietor of the best Apple Authorized Reseller in Kuching; IT Fusion for the heads-up!

Celcom Bolds have arrived in Kuching!

Celcom-Vodafone Bold's began trickling into Kuching Tuesday, albeit in small quantities.

A few folks who had pre-ordered their Bolds received them late afternoon. More will undoubtedly follow, so lets hope the trickle turns into a raging river of Bolds!

One thing I noticed was that the Bolds had OS 4.6.0.126 which is somewhat old. I upgraded my units to 4.6.0.147 immediately as it seems to be more stable and have greater battery life as well (according to a person who should know; he had his Bold run out of battery by 2:30 p.m. once).

Unfortunately, Celcom Bolds do not come with Skins as free gift (darn it.. I did try!) but it does have the usual leather pocket sleeve that comes standard. Better then nothing I suppose.

Kuching launching of Celcom Bold

Celcom Bigwigs were in town yesterday to officiate the launching of the BlackBerry Bold held at the Blue Cube outlet in The Spring Mall in Kuching.

Officially retailing for RM2499 but if you pre-order, it will be yours for the low price of RM2188 but only during the pre-order period. So better get your skates on folks!

I won't bore you with the usual tech specs of the Bold, I believe, there has been enough press coverage about this iconic device already.

Hopefully, stocks will begin to "trickle" in starting sometime next week; naturally, Sarawak is not top of the list but I hope that we're not too way down the list. Apparently, outside KL/Selangor, Sarawak is the 2nd highest growth area for BlackBerrys in Malaysia...Wow!

And let the battle begin...!

As you may know and seen the ads in the papers, Celcom and Maxis have both launched the new Bold! They seem to be falling over themselves to see who can outdo the other in terms of marketing, advertising and of course price! The winner will be the consumers; folks like you and me.

Even though the Bold was "launched" 2nd September, it will not actually be available for sale until 15th September and then only in limited quantities and with a long waiting list on both carriers, it may be a while before it reaches Sarawak in sizable quantities. But it's coming nevertheless!!

Price? Expect a war here. Celcom is releasing it at RM2499 but for Celcom PowerTools customers only (corporate lines), then shortly after, Maxis announces it's going to sell it for RM2199 to personal and corporate users!

Expect Celcom to counter somehow.... and the winner will be?? You and me!

Be Bold. With Celcom

September 2nd was launch day for the BlackBerry Bold by Celcom in KL.

Before you all go out running to the nearest Celcom dealer or a Celcom center, please note, the LAUNCHING was on the 2nd, the actual devices will not be available until September 15th!

I do advise you to go and put your name down on the waiting list though. The list is long and growing longer as the days go by; the Bold is causing a tremendous stir in the Malaysian smartphone market. I believe, on Maxis, it is also the case. So regardless of which network you're on, if you want the Bold, sign up now!

Celcom Kuching GPRS Interruption...yet again

As at 5.30 PM, for the 2nd or 3rd time in less than a month, Celcom's Blackberry GPRS service dies yet again in Kuching. According to Baha, his 3G service died as well.

This does not seem to be affecting those in W. Malaysia. Have tried to call Celcom for news but have not been able to get through.

Will keep everyone posted.

To Celcom: Many of your users have gone past the point of anger to just apathy. The Blackberry service that was promoted as an essential tool for the business user has turned out to be far from that with its frequent outages which reflects very badly not only on your company but on us as well who have promoted your service to our friends and colleagues. I highly suggest the implementation of a status page at the very least with some form of official announcement as to outages. At the very least, we know what to fume at. In any case, the service level is simply unacceptable.

Update: Service was restored something early this morning. Definitely was up at 7.10AM when I woke up.

Thunder exclusive to Vodafone!

The upcoming BlackBerry Thunder will be exclusive to Vodafone!

No word on exactly when it will come out but I've heard "sometime in Q4" being floated about.

What does this mean? If you want it... you have to go to Celcom!

So Maxis has the iPhone 3G (so the rumor goes) and Celcom has the Thunder.. let the Battle Royale begin!

Chile gets to launch the Bold first?!

Boy was I shocked when I read this article on crackberry.com but pleasantly shocked nevertheless.

It just goes to show that even lesser known carriers can beat the big boys to the finish line; funnier things have been known to happen right?

Expect Bold to be launched on Celcom in September and rumor has it on Maxis in October. I can't confirm the Maxis part so if anyone has any inside scoop, please post a comment.

I do know that you won't be disappointed; you have to see the screen to believe it. Seriously! It still takes my breath away every time I look at it. Awesome! Add that to the complete range of Bold accessories that will be available to you all not too far in the future (I hope), I can honestly say, I see good things happening for Celcom BlackBerry aficionados (Malaysian BlackBerry users in general t00) in Malaysia. And about time too!

Baha

Celcom Kuching GPRS interruption

GPRS coverage for Celcom has been down with the dreaded small gprs letters since this morning.

Baha didn't notice it because he was too busy enjoying his 3G on his Bold (grrr).

I contacted Celcom who told me they are aware of the problem and are working to restore service. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery!

They have also told me that it's a nationwide problem which is affecting only some areas but thus I have only heard complaints from people in certain areas of Kuching including the city centre where it is entirely dead.

If you guys have a wi-fi capable Blackberry, the Blackberry service still works.

Update 28 July 11.18 PM: Still no service.

Update 29 July 7.53 AM: Still no service.

Update 29 July 9:30 AM: gprs signal totally down and reduced to GSM. Hopefully this means they are bringing it up soon.

Update 29 July 9:50 AM: Full service restored. Celcom rep called me up to tell me that my PIN was submitted to the KL HQ and they did something to it. Took out my battery and resetted it and it's back to normal! Big thanks.

Those who are still having problems, try a hard reset by taking out the battery. If it still persists, post a comment here so that Celcom knows.

May I suggest that Celcom have a Blackberry status site of some sort to announce service status? Doesn't take that long to maintain and it would reduce a lot of support headaches from unnecessarily repeated information from irate callers.

Cost of 1 Missed Call on Roaming = RM136.67

If you ever do bring your Blackberry overseas, do NOT turn on your voice mailbox function unless you are willing to pay a hefty premium for it.

Case in point:

I was in the US for a month and someone tried to call me. I cancelled his call and he probably said something to my voice mailbox.

After that, I got several calls coming from my mailbox and although I cancelled this, I was charged every single time (around RM13.00 a pop and upwards).

Here's a scan in of the bill. Do note that they are ALL calls from my mailbox (10 calls). Celcom charges me once, Cingular (USA) charges me another time. End result? A hefty bill over nothing.


Tried appealing to Celcom but they would have none of it saying they had already paid the US telco and that they were actually providing a service since some people don't actually mind receiving those calls.

Might want to warn your customers first! >:-(

Update:

When I inquired on the process to cancel my voice mailbox, I was informed that it would be a one way procedure. That means once I cancel my voice mailbox, I can never activate it again.

Hotmail and MSN Live on Celcom and Maxis

With Celcom and Maxis having upgraded their BIS servers to v2.5 you can now link your Hotmail account(s) to your BlackBerry. Previously you had to subscribe  to the paid version of Hotmail to enable POP3 access. Now it's free!

Some of you have a MSN Live icon in your menu too. Once you have linked your Hotmail account(s) and the service books have been pushed to your device, click on the MSN icon so you can download and install MSN Live Messenger on your BlackBerry! I can confirm it works for Celcom on my Curve 8310 (with OS4.5 installed) and on Maxis on my Pearl 2  8110 (with OS4.3)

Cool init???!!

Blackberry Bold: Comparison with the Curve

Reports say that Celcom is bringing this beast in late August or early September.

Twice the processing power than the Curve and 3.5G HSDPA ability so hopefully the system will be a lot more responsive.

Here's a quick comparison of the stats between the Curve and the Bold

1. Bold (624MHz) is twice as fast in processing speed as the Curve (312MHz). This is the biggest draw for me.
2. Bold is estimated to be around the RM2800 range. The Curve is RM1699.
3. Bold has 3.5G HSDPA and Wifi support. 8310 Curve doesn't have both (the 8320 has wifi). Do note that wifi may NOT be fast. It just gives you an option to use hotspots to message/e-mail when roaming to avoid data charges. Calling through wifi is not supported by Celcom though it is capable of doing so.
4. Curve (107 x 60 x 15.5 mm) is shorter and is less wide than the Bold (114 x 66 x 14) but the Bold is a bit slimmer.
5. Curve (111g) is lighter than the Bold(133g)
6. Bold (5 hours) has more talk time compared to Curve (4 hours) with default batteries. However Bold has slightly shorter standby time (13 days) compared to the Curve's 17 days. Curve's battery can be extended to an aftermarket one like Seidio's that would extend this time as well.
7. Bold has 128 MB application memory while the Curve has 64 MB.
8. Bold has 1 GB onboard storage separate. Curve still uses the 64 MB if I am not mistaken. Both are expandable with memory card slots.
9. Bold has a higher display resolution 480x320 compared to Curve's 320x240. Rumoured to surpass Iphone's display.
10. Bold has OS 2.6 with snazzy new interface. Unsure whether this will be ported to Curve which can be upgraded to OS 2.5 that has many features as well (like document editing support, html e-mail and video camera).

What's my take on it? I think getting a Curve now is still excellent value with its significantly lower price and updated OS which unlocks a lot of features.

However, the Bold seems to be an absolute delight though which fills up many of the perceived shortcomings of the Blackberry such as 3g, media player capabilities and a beefy processor. It however remains to be seen how the Bold performs in the field.

At the end of the day for new Blackberry users it comes down to, can you wait? :P Both are brilliant devices so you won't regret either one. Or you can be a Baha and get both :P

UPDATE: Celcom Outage

Service is slowly being restored. As of 9:30pm today, GRPS data service (and by extension BlackBerry) is slowly coming back online. Northern and Central Region of West Malaysia have fully restored GPRS service while other areas are underway. I caution all you celcom users though, please expect perhaps intermittent "mini outages" as network engineers work feverishly to ensure GPRS services are stable.

Glad to have my BlackBerrys back. I'm especially proud that I didn't have a barney anytime in the last 26 hours or so. I survived! Does this mean I am no longer a crackberry addict? Geez. I hope not

Celcom BlackBerry Outage

Celcom BlackBerry service has been experiencing intermittent problems with GPRS services since Friday. I was traveling outside Malaysia until Sunday so naturally didn't notice a thing and even when I returned all was well as can be. Until yesterday...

Around 5p.m. both of my BlackBerrys showed the dreaded "GSM" as the network status. I was mortified! The previous posting also has comments from a BlackBerry user in KL stating that her device has been alternating between GSM and GPRS on a near constant basis. That fits in well with the report that there have been network issues since Friday.

This morning when I woke up; still the dreaded "GSM". I was horrified! How was I going to make through the day without my 'Berry? Some SMS-ing to friends in Celcom finally cleared up the issue. So here it is folks, for all you suffering Celcom BlackBerry users out there:

Celcom is experiencing problems with GPRS services nationwide. Celcom and Nokia technicians are trying to rectify the problem but it will take time. It only effects GPRS BlackBerrys; 3G devices (you know, the 8707 calculator) still functions as it should.

There is no timeframe as to when the problem will be solved but rumors that it may take up to one month to fully iron out the problems do sound rather far-fetched.

Hopefully all you Celcom BB users out there will remain patient while Celcom and Nokia techies madly try and return a sense of normalcy to your lives!

Celcom, if you're listening, hope you rectify this within the next 12 hours otherwise you'll have a mutiny on your hands!

If I were a Maxis marketing guy.. I'd be giggling my ass off and preparing full color spreads and inserts in all major newspapers in Malaysia with the headline : "BlackBerry by Maxis.. the most reliable in the whole nation. Keeps on tickin' while others need fixin'..."

Ok, if any Maxis suits are reading this.. thats my line.. So don't try to pass it off as your own idea.. OK? Hire me.. and you can.

Celcom hiccup...

Just stepped off the plane from Singapore today around 3pm and to my absolute horror discovered that Celcom BlackBerry service in Kuching International Airport were down; the dreaded "GSM" appeared and lingered on both my BlackBerrys!

A quick SMS (it sounds so "dirty" to SMS instead of using BBM) to a friendly Celcom CSR  to find out what the heck is going on was met with a reply that basically confirmed my worst fears; there is a problem with Celcom BlackBerry services in Kuching but in selected locations only; it seems to be isolated in certain base station cells. This was confirmed during my taxi ride back home as the "GPRS" on my BlackBerry appeared for awhile and then disappeared as I moved from one cell to another. 

Here at home in Petra Jaya it remains intermittent (that's a  generous appraisal of the situation) but for the most part, I have no BlackBerry service! It is now 11:25pm and I've had no BlackBerry service since 3pm! That's almost eight and a half hours!!  This is SO NOT ON!

The full story is there was an equipment failure involving Motorola (?) SGSN at Kepong. A SGSN or a Serving GPRS Support Node is responsible for packet data services to and from mobile phones within its area. I'm not very clued in when it comes to network switching (and what knowledge I do know about switching is about 13 years old) but I fail to see the link between a failure of gear in Kepong in West Malaysia with data service failure in selective cells in Kuching, Sarawak! 

Perhaps someone out there can enlighten me? 

I just hope Celcom gets their act together and restore service soon; like yesterday! Here I was taking the mickey out of Maxis customers about a week or so ago when Maxis BB network went down for 5 hours one evening.. guess I need a lesson in humility and better eat my words huh?

It's getting hectic around here...!

It's getting hectic around here!

This website began as a passion. I wanted to share my passion for the BlackBerry with others so that they in turn, will be convinced  to take the plunge as well. I began selling accessories for the BlackBerry to cater to the local BlackBerry user base. It was strictly informal and non professional in nature.

Since April, I turned it up a notch. I started a company that took over the selling of BlackBerry accessories and am in the midst of negotiating with various suppliers so I can bring a greater range of accessories at a lower price. Again for the good of the local BlackBerry user base. I'm actually going to open a dedicated office and hire staff to cope with what is expected to be a major spike in interest in Celcom BlackBerry and in my workload. I have new stock of accessories arriving almost weekly and am turning over these accessories quite fast as well! My reputation as the BlackBerry "go-to guy" is building rapidly! I even have plans to sit for BlackBerry certification examinations in the near future...

 I was invited to Miri to attend the Celcom BlackBerry Business Circle in conjunction with the Miri Jazz Festival where I met the great folks from Celcom Enterprise KL as well as a RIM representative.  We started talking and all I can say is there are good things in store for us all! Wait for it.. it will be worth the wait. I promise! 

I have a plan (Oh crap!! Better run for it...) and I believe it will be wonderful for the local BlackBerry market. Celcom have been great.. RIM have been great!

Lets make this real!!

Celcom BlackBerry Business Circle Miri 9 June 2008

Celcom being a sponsor for the Miri Jazz Festival this coming weekend, is also hosting another Business Circle event at the Marriott Resort and Spa.

Unfortunately it is a "by invitation only event" but I will do a write up of the event when I get back from Miri.

I've been ask to do a quick talk about the benefits of using a Blackberry from the perspective of an end user. As opposed to from the perspective of the carrier.

Here's hoping I don't freeze up with stage fright... Wish me luck!

Celcom "link" down..

I woke up this morning, reached over for my Curve and stared in horror! The dreaded "gprs" instead of the usual "GPRS" was showing on the screen. A few device resets didn't solve the problem either so a little later in the morning I SMS'd (yup.. SMS. Missed my BB Messenger already) my friendly Celcom CSR to inquire if BB services were down. I got a reply saying that it's not BB that was down but the Celcom "link". Now I'm guessing she was referring to Internet link or International link. I'm not quite entirely sure.

When I made it to my office later, I found that my Streamyx was also crawling more then normal. Now I mean really crawling; worse then the 56K days, probably around 28.8 or even 14.4 days (some trivia for you; my very first modem was a Hayes 2400baud modem. That's 2.4K for the uninitiated). So it sounds like the "link" to the Internet is down or severely degraded (what happened to backup?) as even local websites are slow to load.

As of 11:05am this morning, the Internet connection has improved somewhat but the dreaded "gprs" still shows.... *sigh*

 Received an SMS just before 1230pm from my friendly CSR. It simply stated that BB services are back to normal. A quick reboot and sure enough.. GPRS! Emails began flooding into my inbox and even an odd BB message! All's good again!

Fire at RIM? Could this be the reason why Celcom BB is laggy?

Apparently a fire at RIM in Canada caused a disruption in the email services of a Philippines BSP, Smart Communications! The fire affected the leased line that links the companies servers at RIM to Smart's GPRS platform in the Philippines. Smart was the only affected BSP in the Philippines and traffic is being re routed to overcome the problem.

Hmmm! I wonder if Celcom was affected too? Friends on Maxis also complained of laggy service this morning. SMS's and BB messages to Celcom remain unanswered. I've tried resending service books twice this morning and have still not received the activation messages that usually accompanies the sending of service books!!

Read the article

Seems to be a problem with Celcom BB this morning...

Something seems to be wrong with Celcom-Vodafone BlackBerry service the last two days.

Yesterday it was mainly not receiving emails on my BB. As luck would have it, it happened to be a time sensitive email regarding my work. I only realized that I had email waiting (on my G Mail) when she SMS'd me asking for a quick reply! Sending a reply via G Mail wasn't a problem thank God and after a service book resend, the emails (there was more then one undelivered email) finally came into my inbox. Later on in the afternoon I have also had instances of multiple copies of the same email being delivered multiple times at different times during the day. Confusing isn't it?

Now this morning, even BlackBerry Messenger messages to off-network and on-network BB users have been lagging. Contacts that I messaged shows as unavailable until they reply, it takes 5-10 seconds to send a BB message, message status shows sent only even though by their replies it's obvious they have received it and read it.

I hope this is sorted out soon.. it's frustrating! Technology is a double edged sword.

Celcom's thank you advert in The Borneo Post

This ad appeared in The Borneo Post on Thursday 6 December (or was it Friday 7 December?). Basically it was a huge (1/4 page) thank you from Celcom Vodafone to all those who attended the Celcom Vodafone BlackBerry Round Table event on Friday 23 November.

In the bottom middle picture you can see Mr. Adrian Wilkes of DrillCorp (M) Sdn Bhd receiving his free BlackBerry 8310 for being Celcom's largest BB revenue contributer in Sarawak (a.k.a. has the biggest bill).  You may need a magnifying glass or zoom in to the picture on the right a lot but you can see my bald head to the left of Mr Adrian Wilkes. I'm not very photogenic; I know.

Anyway, it's the little things like this that counts and I have to say, from what I have seen and am seeing, Celcom has a good game plan. They are taking BlackBerry and Sarawak seriously. I whole heartedly endorse Celcom Vodafone BlackBerry services in Sarawak! Go Blue!!!

Oh and one  thing, sorry for the poor scan.. I a one man show so can't afford all the fancy equipment required to properly promote a top class carrier like Celcom *wink,wink, knudge, knudge, say no more, say no more...*

Celcom BlackBerry Business Circle @ Senso, Kuching Hilton

Celcom held a BlackBerry Business Circle event at Senso in the Kuching Hilton on Friday 23rd November at 3:00pm and I was invited.

Originally it was meant as a launching for the newly introduced BlackBerry Curve 8310 but since Prudential Assurance pretty much swiped every unit in Celcom inventory for the coming few months, the launching was postponed. Instead it was more a social event whereby current users of Celcom BlackBerry and potential users had the rare opportunity to talk with Celcom big-wigs from KL and even a Vodafone representative who flew in all the way from London!

For me, the event highlighted Celcom's commitment to the continued growth of the BlackBerry market in Sarawak, and this was aptly illustrated when the Vice President of Global Enterprise of Celcom announced that Celcom will develop its own Sarawak map application for use with the new GPS equipped devices! Again, I was naturally impressed by the fact that so many big-wigs and a Vodafone representative flew down to our city to attend such a small gathering. I hope this is a sign of things to come.

For those who have been reading this blog, they would know that up until about two months ago, I was a Maxis BlackBerry user and swapped out of frustration with certain aspects of Maxis BlackBerry's service in Kuching. These included almost regular outages and the fact that all BlackBerry support staff were in KL and there is none in Kuching.

At first I was very skeptical of Celcom as my previous experience with Celcom services in the 90's were dissapointing across the board; technical, customer support, network... you name it. They sucked!

Now; specifically within the last one and a half years or so, Celcom has improved tremendously. A revamp of its corporate image, a marketing blitz backed up by honest to God improvements to their network, has in my opinion, made Celcom a worthy contender for the "Premier Business Mobile Network". And from what I saw and heard at this business circle event, the future is bright! Both for Celcom and its users.

Anyway, I digress.

Another highlight of the day was when Mr Adrian Wilkes of Drillcorp (M) Sdn Bhd won one of the coveted BlackBerry 8310 Curve for being the top supporter of Celcom BlackBerry in Sarawak (meaning his company was the largest revenue for Celcom BlackBerry in Sarawak). I was tempted to mug him when he left the event.

More interesting things are in the works for Celcom BlackBerry users in Sarawak. I'm not privy to exactly what; but wait for it! It's gonna be good!

Celcom signs MoU with Prudential

Celcom has recently formalized  it's joint collaboration with Prudential Assurance Malaysia Bhd whereby the carrier will be providing voice and data plans as well as BB devices to the 1500 Prudential employees. The employees will have a choice  of  the 8707v, 8100 Pearl and the newly launched 8310 Curve.

"The BlackBerry will be an essential tool for the agents because the information for all their needs will be at their fingertips" says Celcom CEO Datuk Seri Shazalli Ramly during the ceremony for the signing of the MoU between the two companies recently

BB Cuve 8310 arrives in Malaysia via Celcom (sort of..)

In a press release today, Celcom confirms that the Blackberry Curve 8310 (with built in GPS) will be introduced soon.

The catch is the first two batches of up to 2000 units will go to Prudential Assurance Malaysia Berhad (PAMB) a large insurance company in Malaysia. After which it will be made available to the general public.

My question is when are they going to bring in the 8320 with the built in Wi-Fi? I have tried the GPS application in the 8800 and there are NO MAPS FOR KUCHING! So what's the point?

Read more

Celcom or Maxis... which shall i go for?

Recently I signed up for Celcom's blackberry service in part, due to a number of recent frustrations I have been experiencing with Maxis's Blackberry service. To cut a long story short, there have been frequent outages and other technical glitches suffered by Maxis which has cost me some sleepless nights and endless frustration (I hate it when a CSR tells you to "off your phone and on it back again..").

Although this is not meant to be a review or a comparison of the two telco's Blackberry services (that will come in the near future once I have fairly evaluated Celcom's service), I am now presented with a dilemma; which telco will be my main Blackberry Service Provider (BSP) and power my BB 8300 Curve?

Previously Maxis was my main BSP while Celcom was my secondary voice line. Now I have BES services for both I am confused as to which setup will serve me best.

My Maxis number is known to all; business associates, personal friends and family members. If I use Maxis as my BSP, I only have to carry one device around which is a great bonus. However, as mentioned previously, Maxis has had some technical issues lately and at times my Blackberry has been down for anything from a few hours to half a day or more. Additionally, but on a totally different level, Maxis isn't very receptive of any suggestions to collaborate for the common good of local Blackberry users. I don't quite understand that; a win-win situation for all parties involved, I help actively promote Maxis and their Blackberry service and Maxis provides me with marketing support and access to their technical staff. They just weren't game which was quite a bummer as I believe the future of Blackberry and the scope for growth in Sarawak is tremendous. Don't forget, Sarawak has a large number of public listed companies, large private companies, state government institutions and other bodies that may benefit from the use of Blackberries.

Not long ago, Celcom announced that it launched it's BIS service, catering to the consumer market and the private individual who longs to experience "push email" as corporations do. I am a BES user; I have access to my own Exchange and BES servers and only subscribe to the BES service at the switching level only; I don't pay any licensing fees to any of the BSP's. Initial inquiries with Celcom CSR's was disappointing; I was told that BES was not available to the private user and a minimum of 10 corporate lines was required before BES was an option for a corporate account. I can now tell you that this is untrue; BES is available to the individual user, however, the Celcom subscriber line must be under corporate as opposed to personal. At least there is no minimum lines required to qualify for BES!

Celcom Global Enterprise team members in Kuching were a great help too (Doris and Valerie.. thanks a lot! You were both great!) and within a day or two I had converted my personal line to corporate and my BES was active.

As a side note, I discovered that if you don't change your device, swapping your old BSP's SIM for the new BSP's SIM card meant that BES was functioning from the very start of the cross-over. All that was required is that you register your device PIN and IMEI at the new BSP's BIS website, delete all email accounts from your old BSP's BIS website and add them to your new BSP's BIS setup (does that sound confusing or what?) and send the service books for your new BSP to your BB. You're all set!

So now, my Curve is powered by Celcom's Blackberry service while my Maxis SIM now resides in my SE K850i acting as a voice only number. I activated the 3G function on Maxis so I could download/upload faster as well as do mobile blogging more efficiently.

That leads me to my problem; I have to carry two devices, my Curve and my K810i. Imagine having to carry both devices every time I played golf or went for dinner. How cumbersome. I could leave the BB behind when I'm playing golf or going for dinners but I am a Blackberry addict and the idea of any period of time without my BB close at hand is unthinkable! Insane!

If number portability would hurry up and be implemented in Malaysia, it wouldn't be an issue but I am not sure when it will be actually implemented. In the mid-90's I was working in Time Telekom as an interconnect analyst and was involved in the first few steering committee discussions on number portability held at JTM in Damansara. That was nearly 10 years ago and Malaysia has still to implement the concept!

To make matters worse, I discover that the K850i doesn't support third party software like Nokia's or even the SE P990 or P1 series! There are some third party software that I find indispensable including a voice recording program, and an advanced call manager type program. I may have to buy another phone to act as my voice phone now! Celcom's BES service requires a 24 month commitment, so you can't terminate before the 24 months are up so I can't reverse my decision (not that I have any plans right now though). How costly..

Right now I am carrying both devices around and unless I decide to inform the whole world that my primary voice number is now a Celcom number, I have no choice. Another plus point for my Maxis line is that the number is very easy to remember while my Celcom isn't as simple. I suppose I could forward all calls from my Maxis to my Celcom but SMS's cant be forwarded and I do receive quite a large number of SMS's (believe it or not but the vast majority of my friends have yet to embrace to Blackberry but I aim to change that soon).

I am so confused!

A review/comparison of both BSP's from a network, technical and service standpoint is in the works; stay tuned!

Blackberry via Celcom

Celcom offers Blackberry services in conjunction with a partnership with Vodaphone. Previously, it was strictly the domain of large corporations that come under Celcom's corporate accounts division.

Recently, Celcom launched its BIS service aimed at the individual and small business user. It gives these individuals and smaller companies the opportunity to experience "push-email" and mobile communications that up until now were the domain of the large companies and executives.

Celcom BIS is very aggressively priced. The basic package cost RM38/month and included 1MB of data. Additional data used will be charged at 10sen per 10KB. The unlimited plan cost RM98/month and, like its name implies, included unlimited data usage. Compared to maxis, it is very competitive.

BIS enables you to link up to 10 email accounts (POP, IMAP and webmail) to your BB device. Emails received at any of these accounts will be "pushed" to your BB device. Some accounts like
GMail and Yahoo! support "true push" and emails are pushed to your BB device almost immediately after it is received. Other accounts that do not support true push are polled or "pulled" at regular intervals (usually around 15 minutes).

Unfortunately, at this time, Celcom does not offer BES services to individuals. It requires a minimum of 10 accounts to collectively sign up for its BES service. Details are sparse; emails sent to Celcom "Powertools" department were replied by basically stating that at present BES service is only open to corporate customers and requires a minimum of 10 accounts to sign up.

I hope in the future, Celcom will offer BES to the individual. People must understand and accept that BES service doesn't necessarily require you to setup a local Exchange and BES server and pay for the software licenses in Malaysia. Hosted BES, whereby, a third party provides you with limited space and bandwidth on their Exchange and BES servers, allows individuals and smaller companies to experience the benefit of "full-service" Blackberry at a fraction of the cost required to maintain an Exchange and BES servers in-house.

Click here to view Celcom's Blackberry site