Three gets Blackberry with better value

Three’s long-awaited move to put the BlackBerry on its mobile menu delivers some welcome competition to the push email landscape. The new plans range from $79 to $129, but on top of the obligatory ‘unlimited email’ – which actually covers all BlackBerry data services such as Web browsing and Google Maps – sits a 2GB monthly allowance for using your BlackBerry as a 3G modem for your Windows laptop.

We’ve specified Windows because this is a no-go zone for Apple. Connecting the BlackBerry to your notebook as a ‘tethered modem’ requires a special modem driver for Windows 2000, XP and Vista that’s installed with the Windows-only BlackBerry Desktop Manager software (although we’ve heard rumours that a Mac version of the client desktop is on the way).

The supplied BlackBerry 8707g handset is currently RIM’s only 3G device, and of course it isn’t HSDPA, so the maximum speed is 384Kbps. In our experience you can expect 200-300Kbps in the real world. It's also a rather old Blackberry device, with a slower interface, a thumbwheel rather than a scroll ball and a duller screen than the latest models.

But do you really need 3G when the BlackBerry’s highly efficient gateway compresses all emails and attachments to the merest fraction of their original size? Quite probably not, but if you’ll certainly see a snappier load times when running applications like Google Maps.

While both Optus and Vodafone offer the same 3G BlackBerry 8707 handset in addition to GSM devices such as the 8300 Curve and 8100 Pearl, and RIM is yet to cook up a Next G BlackBerry for Telstra, Three is the only telco to include a ‘mobile broadband’ allowance in their BlackBerry plans.

Unlike its competitors, Three has no GSM service as a fallback for when you move into a low-signal or no-signal 3G zone. By default, customers in that situation automatically roam onto Telstra’s GSM network and are hit with a $1.65/MB tariff. This has already delivered an unwelcome end-of-month sting to many of Three’s unwary mobile broadband customers.

To avoid this fate befalling BlackBerry subscribers each of Three’s plans include 2MB of nation-wide roaming data. “If you translate that to a serving up of emails, and remember that the BlackBerry is fantastic at compressing data, that works out to be about 1000 emails”  says Jana Kotatko, 3’s Mobile Head of Internet & Communications Services. “This means customers don’t have to worry about roaming nationally”.

However, using services such as Google Maps will gobble up more data than emails, so if you’re in on the cusp of Three’s coverage or in a known low signal area we suggest you keep an eye on the screen in case the ‘Roaming’ indicator appears.

Beyond email and mobile broadband, the plans allow for between $140 and $280 worth of free calls to Three mobiles plus voice and messaging caps from $300 to $800.

Another bonus is the unlimited email also applies in  UK, Austria Denmark, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy or Sweden, where Three subscribers can roam onto ‘sister networks’ as part of the ‘3 Like Home’ service. While use of the BlackBerry as a mobile broadband modem is charged at 50c/MB, Kotatko says that using the BlackBerry for email will incur no extra costs such as a per-session flag fall or data roaming  charges.

Three’s BlackBerry plans are as follows:

• $79/month: $300 call cap, $140 free calls to Three mobiles and 2GB of mobile broadband
• $99/month: $550 call cap, $210 free calls to Three mobiles and 2GB of mobile broadband
• $129/month: $800 call cap, $280 free calls to Three mobiles and 2GB of mobile broadband

Each plan includes the BlackBerry 8707g handset and requires signing to a 24 month contract. Three does not provide the plan separately to the handset -- e.g. if you want to "BYO Blackberry", that is not possible yet.