RIM released the long awaited upgrade to blackberry messenger 5.0 last night. If you have a blackberry and haven't installed it yet, you can install it from Blackberry App World. It's a 2.5mb download and you'll need to reboot your device.

Changes in the new version -

* Conversation topics
* Contact photos
* Broadcast messages (send a message to all of your contacts)
* Generate a barcode that people can scan with their blackberry cameras to add you as a contact.

If you have a blackberry and haven't used blackberry messenger, you're missing out. It's essentially a secure IM client for blackberry users to talk to each other on. It's what a lot of the other admins and I use at work to communicate from out of the office when you may not have time for a phone call.

Add me once you've updated :

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

That is if you can get it to download, lol. As of Noon EST their servers were congested to the point they need to call Mario and a plunger.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

of course it is, I had no problems at 2am

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

haha thats awesome i added you.

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

We can finally get in the bb storms, my cost is $700 bucks, is it worth it, or should I just go with the 8330 curve?

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

No phone is worth 700 bucks, especially the Storm, I used to have the storm it's worth 100-150max

yeah, storms are like $50-100 maybe. the storm 2 might be worth 200, but if you can get it, go for a bold or a curve 8900, or stick it out for the 9700 in november.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Don't forget the Tour! I like the Tour much more than any curve model and a bit more then the Bold.

I am a cell phone dealer, so in lei of 'free' phones on long term contracts I just activate a phone from my inventory on a dealer plan where I get free minutes/no monthly fees, etc.

So maybe the storm is not worth $700, but that is what my cost is on it, the curve is $550, and on our blackberry network, I can't activate any other blackberrys other than ones supplied to us by blackberry.

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Jake Rivers - Senex Legio
Get off my Lawn alliance

Medijin :

the Tour would be better if it didn't come attached to Verizon.

Miramicha :

Then go for the curve. Touchscreens are not right for blackberries.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Blackberry Tour is on Sprint aswell so if you still want 3g and no bloated crap on it try one on sprint. The everything data 450 min plan for $69.99 allows you to call any mobile phone on any carrier. (excludes roaming, landlines and 1-8XX numbers)

I currently use a Blackberry Curve 8330m and I love it but soon I will be migrating to the Android market once the hero is released.

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

too bad sprint's network also sucks

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I'm on AT&T now Van and I have wayyyyyyyyy more dropped calls then I ever did on Verizon, I don't get what's wrong with Verizon they charge the same as AT&T. I just left because I'm a cheap-o and wanted to stay on my parents family plan. I suppose coverage varies though so you might have a much better area then me.

Just wait until they release the femtocells in a mass market, that won't be a problem anymore.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

If I have to pay a monthly fee to make up for their lack of 3G coverage for the femtocells i'll be pissed, if it's a one time deal I might not be depending on the price.

The dropped calls are a byproduct of our (AT&T, I work in the data network dept) network being able to simultaneously make and recieve calls and use data function, combined with the fact that our towers house both voice and data, where Verizon and Sprint's do not and finally Iphone congestion. We're turning on about another 15,000 towers in major markets to help the congestion, but we need more spectrum to create more, which is what customer's don't understand. We can only get spectrum when the FCC releases it.

As for the femtocell, right now it's 150.00 flat fee, or 150.00 with 100.00 mail in rebate, then you can pay 20 bucks a month if you want unlimited calling from your home. Hopefully we'll have it deployed before Christmas.

Either way it's guarunteed coverage.

Oh, PS, it's just been announced that LTE, or 4g, will all be VOIP anyway, so hopefully congestion won't be an issue, becuase finally the big 2 carriers will be on the same network type and will end up having roaming agreements, which we don't right now due to technology differences.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Sprint touches the most people out of the carriers in over all coverage.

Sprint is going to release a larger femtocell device and right now we are giving ours away to customers who are high value and having problems with coverage in there home or work.

Sprint pushing Wimax hard this year I think 20 or so major cities by end of this year.

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

shouldn't all customers be considered "high value" ? =P

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

The problem with wimax is that it's NOT 4G. it's a marketing gimmick to customer's to sell more service. Connecting through Clearwire's wimax to the internet doesn't = a 4g cell tower. The LTE standard has already been set to VOIP for voice with increased data transmission.

Sprint shouldn't be allowed to claim 4G anything when even the world's bleeding edge wireless company, DoCoMo Japan is barely started testing of LTE devices.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

You would think huh? Nope we have customers that just dont want to pay their bills.


And I agree Jed it isnt true 4G but I don't work for marketing or corp so I just go with the flow and cant beat the paycheck I get. I think by the end of the year I would have made almost double what my old job paid me ...

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

I'm not disputing that Anthony, I'm glad you have a good job in this crap economy but i have to explain to people all day that and it irritates the piss outta me

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

If you have to explain it all day then I guess marketing is working. haha :p

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

heh, my hate from sprint is born out of my bitterness over what they did to the nextel brand. it doesn't help that their network (including wimax) in atlanta fucking blows.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Personally I would rather go with out a cell phone than to have to pay Sprint/Nextell for anything. They provided such a craptastic service that I happily paid to get out of their contract.

Sola: Point of clarification...

If you pay $20 for unlimited femtocell calls... is it only from home (since the sucker has a built-in GPS), or anywhere you take that cell w/in the US?

How this option is acceptable to ANYONE is beyond me. Granted, in rural areas, I get it, but even then, my service should be discounted for its use. The monthly fee? Die in a fucking fire on that count (not you, I like you ;P).

AT&T - Your World Delivered...for a flat fee and monthly service charge when it isn't.

Josh, it's either 150.00 with no monthly fee and no unlimited calling or 50.00 after 100.00 mail in rebate and unlimited calling for up to 10 phones now, was 4, could change again when it goes live.

Leo, it's any where the femotocell can get coverage; ie. wherever there's a broadband or DSL connection, at least for now. I have a strong feeling we'll lock it down because we're dicks like that.

People are pissed because we press released this before the 4 trial area's had completed it's tested.

Right now it's been tested to get service in the middle of the BFE where there's zero cell service.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Hrmm, I still don't like it, but I see what you're saying.



Yeah, but charging folks to increase penetration at far less cost? (especially when rural tower leasing rates are through the fucking roof). Bleh.

Yeah our device costs money unless you want to cancel services then it becomes free, we even waive the monthly recurring cost.

BTW I love HTC hero!!

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

from what I understand it boosts signal for a mile around you, and if it allows ten phones then you could probably have your neighbors chip in for initial and monthly costs.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

Can you piggy back on them is the question or will their be some wierd registration between your phone and the cell so that it only works for those who paid for it? or can I piggy back off my neighbors?

The problem though Josh is that we are about out of spectrum, again. The FCC just told us last week they will free up more space but I don't know why. When we all go LTE we won't need spectrum, so.....we're spending money in the short term to increase penetration. It makes no sense to me. Customer's have to suck it up till we go LTE and we can just use VOIP. That's just my personal opinion.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

LTE and that conversion is going to take years to finally move everything over, so a customer should be punished while AT&T, Verizon and Sprint migrate over?

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

It might for Sprint, but we're already testing in R&D, our rollout starts end of next year and all customers will be transitioned by end of 2011 start of 2012. Now granted that's the unofficial roadmap, but it makes no sense to buy more spectrum which will take at least a year to free up and another year to deploy towers just to transition.

The microcell will fix that for 90% of the customers.

Honestly, it won't be too long before the other 3 big companies follow Sprint's $69.99 plan, as it just makes sense, so costs will end up dropping, because I don't know about you, but I can count on one hand how many numbers I call that are landlines.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Yeah sprint was the first to take the leap AT&T and Verizon will probably follow suit if they see it catching on. Hell I would of if I wasnt a employee and saw that deal. I was with T-mobile with a Blackberry on my line paying $90.00 bucks a month before taxes.

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"Creating Havoc and Pie Since 2001!"
My Website: http://www.anthonyhays.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/cakvala

Good thing 2012 is right around the corner.

My point, Neesha, is that it's going to take at least a year for more spectrum to be opened, and another year before towers are up that will take advantage of that spectrum. By that time us and Verizon will be in the LTE transition.

That alone is going to make coverage better because we'll finally have a roaming agreement between Verizon and AT&T.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

One more question... You have to assign device IDs to the femtocell in order to pick up the signal, right? If I get this thing, I'm not going to be paying for my neighbor's increased reception (and use of my broadband), right?

Right, you'll have to assign which ICCID's are allowed in the femtocell. So no, you can't piggyback.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

now for the question of the ages...


can you create a mesh network with femtocells? enough to blanket a large area?

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

That I don't know, I bet someone will figure it out though.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

Is their a reason you have to register your phone to a femtocell to get the boost in signal or is it just so they can sell more?

it's so other people can't jack shit you're paying for.

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World of Warcraft: Kallaystra, Gweila, Steakumn, Tarathia [ Feathermoon/Horde ]

I guess I was thinking its purpose is to help areas with poor reception and that the more people that bought them the better it would become for that area. So if you have shitty reception and dropped calls the only way to fix that for the next 2 years is to buy a machine that is locked down to certain phones?

I guess my next question is who gets to pick which phones are tied to that femtocell, if I have a friend come over can I add them to it temperately or is he screwed because he isn't on my bill?

Also will the femtocell be useless in two years when LTE is here?

Microcells have nothing to do with spectrum, there's plenty of that remaining, the cells are for traffic management. It's the same thing they set up at sporting events, in malls, in subway stations, etc. They increase channel capacity.

The FCC mandates that service run at no higher than 50% load, so when they say spectrum is running out what they mean is we're approaching 50% capacity.

..cut.. Whether the cell will be useless or not I would assume depends on which band the end up using for LTE. If the cell is dual/multi-band then that increases it's chances. I think we have 4 (?) in widespread use in the US. I can't imagine they'd want to replace too much of their infrastructure. The cell phone companies have microcells everywhere.

Medijin, the femtocell is locked down to your broad band network at home, and uses VOIP to bridge between your broadband internet and the tower to make and recieve phonecalls from your home. You add phones to it via the simcard number on your sim, and right now it's 10 per femtocell, could possibly change, and no you couldn't temporarly add a person becuase more than likely the change takes 12 to 24 hours to process through the HLR in your area.

As for being useless in two years? Doubtfull, as LTE is going to be VOIP it should work flawlessly, should being the keyword.

And no, Sarissa, there isn't enough open spectrum. The CTIA and the 4 major carriers about two weeks ago had to appeal to the FCC to open some more up for use because of the load. The FCC promised they would, but they have to actually free some up, meaning kicking more users off the spectrum, or companies privately buying what's already in use.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"

IIRC they petitioned for spectrum to expand service to mobile broadband, not to support existing service. In that regard there will never be enough spectrum. In the short term spectrum expansion is just the cheaper alternative to raising more towers, or sending more data by wire.

Which brings about an interesting question. When/if 100-gigabit ethernet hits the market will cellular networks still be the way to go? I know the phone companies will believe so because it's 'saleable' but I just wonder if it will be able to compete with the capacity of a WiFi style network.

The existing service is the problem for AT&T. We use the same network for data and voice, so it amounts to the same thing.

Due to the business model we employ in the U.S., i doubt it will work for us, but I bet it becomes the standard round the world.

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"I'm the best there is at what i do, bub, and what i do isn't very pretty"