# Blackberry in Dubai is dead cheap How?



## pansraohk (Jan 4, 2010)

I am told that the blackberry charges in Dubai are the lowest in the world and for a fixed amount of AED 300 or so, you get unlimited usage including unlimited usage from other countriesi.e roaming is literally free.
Is this true and if so, how does this work?
and if it is true, how come the BB users from other countries are not lining up for a BB from Dubai?


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

pansraohk said:


> I am told that the blackberry charges in Dubai are the lowest in the world and for a fixed amount of AED 300 or so, you get unlimited usage including unlimited usage from other countriesi.e roaming is literally free.
> Is this true and if so, how does this work?
> and if it is true, how come the BB users from other countries are not lining up for a BB from Dubai?



Your information is incorrect. Please check the Etisalat website for details of the various packages offered.

International roaming is not free and a depsoit of AED 2K is required with higher international costs.

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## pansraohk (Jan 4, 2010)

I had a look at the Etisalat website.
There is a package (Unlimited Global) for AED 295 for which we get "Unlimited Roaming Service both in the UAE abd abroad. It does not say anything about roaming fees.
There is also another package "Unlimited Domestic" under which for AED185, apart from unlimited domestic usage, the user will need to pay (GPRS roaming charges"
It thus appears that if we take up the Unlimited Global, there are no roaming charges while using it outside UAE.
am I missing something here?
Rgds
rao





Elphaba said:


> Your information is incorrect. Please check the Etisalat website for details of the various packages offered.
> 
> International roaming is not free and a depsoit of AED 2K is required with higher international costs.
> 
> -


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## Lenochka (Apr 19, 2008)

the roaming fees are charged by the other countries operator and not Etisalat.
As they differ from provider to provider, and Etisalat is not resonsible for it, they can't be specified upfront.


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

pansraohk said:


> I had a look at the Etisalat website.
> There is a package (Unlimited Global) for AED 295 for which we get "Unlimited Roaming Service both in the UAE abd abroad. It does not say anything about roaming fees.
> There is also another package "Unlimited Domestic" under which for AED185, apart from unlimited domestic usage, the user will need to pay (GPRS roaming charges"
> It thus appears that if we take up the Unlimited Global, there are no roaming charges while using it outside UAE.
> ...


Yes you are - welcome to Dubai! Just because something isn't shown on a website doesn't mean you won't pay for it.

Charges are not totally unlimited (see the very small print). I have Blackberyy with an Etisalat contract and bills vary depending on total usage. As Lenochka rightly says overseas costs are not set by Etisalat but they pass on the charges.

If it looks too good to be true, then you can bet that it is...

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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

pansraohk said:


> I had a look at the Etisalat website.
> There is a package (Unlimited Global) for AED 295 for which we get "Unlimited Roaming Service both in the UAE abd abroad. It does not say anything about roaming fees.
> There is also another package "Unlimited Domestic" under which for AED185, apart from unlimited domestic usage, the user will need to pay (GPRS roaming charges"
> It thus appears that if we take up the Unlimited Global, there are no roaming charges while using it outside UAE.
> ...


I have an office BB which I dont pay for (but sign on the bills) so I might have missed some items. 
For my plan, I don't recall seeing ANY charge for data usage on roaming, i.e., emails (and also the internet usage on BB) are for free. However, voice calls/SMS on roaming are definitely not free. (I got charged c. 40 Dhs/min in Turkey !!!)


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## Niknpatel (Dec 27, 2009)

Hey all,

i pay $250USD/month here in the USA for a blackberry with unlimited domestic minutes, domestic SMS, 100 free international SMS, unlimited data/email...pretty much everything (except international roaming which is CRAZY!)..so im sure the UAE is cheaper than that....well i'm hoping!

what would a similar plan cost in the UAE?....i rely on Blackberry messenger to communicate with clients around the world heavily too


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

Niknpatel said:


> Hey all,
> 
> i pay $250USD/month here in the USA for a blackberry with unlimited domestic minutes, domestic SMS, 100 free international SMS, unlimited data/email...pretty much everything (except international roaming which is CRAZY!)..so im sure the UAE is cheaper than that....well i'm hoping!
> 
> what would a similar plan cost in the UAE?....i rely on Blackberry messenger to communicate with clients around the world heavily too


Welcome to Etisalat
du

Hope this helps


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## Niknpatel (Dec 27, 2009)

rsinner said:


> Welcome to Etisalat
> du
> 
> Hope this helps


cheers for that link.

It says UNLIMITED GLOBAL is 295Dhs/month....CHEAP in my opinion!

Unlimited Global is for those people who travel regularly outside the UAE. It gives the customers unlimited usage of the BlackBerry® Service both in the UAE and abroad. Etisalat has global gprs roaming agreements with 174 operators in 83 countries. Click here to view the International roaming List."


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## Lenochka (Apr 19, 2008)

I doubt very very much that the roaming costs are included.....only the fact that there is an agreement does not mean the costs are covered. It merely means that it can be used and that the technical facitilies, ways of billing etc etc are established....

but that is obviously just my own opinion....you may see this different....
just beware that you may be up for a big surprise if you use it alot abroad


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## Niknpatel (Dec 27, 2009)

Lenochka said:


> I doubt very very much that the roaming costs are included.....only the fact that there is an agreement does not mean the costs are covered. It merely means that it can be used and that the technical facitilies, ways of billing etc etc are established....
> 
> but that is obviously just my own opinion....you may see this different....
> just beware that you may be up for a big surprise if you use it alot abroad


Yea, i hardly think that it is covered...else that would probably be the cheapest BBerry plan in the world!lol


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## Elphaba (Jan 24, 2008)

Niknpatel said:


> Yea, i hardly think that it is covered...else that would probably be the cheapest BBerry plan in the world!lol



You are right, as are others who have said the same.  

Calls charges by other, international, providers when overseas are NOT included in the Etisalat costs. 

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## motojet (Mar 11, 2008)

Elphaba said:


> You are right, as are others who have said the same.
> 
> Calls charges by other, international, providers when overseas are NOT included in the Etisalat costs.
> 
> -


I don't own a Blackberry but I know a few people that do. I believe international voice calls will cost you extra roaming charges but the data will not cost extra roaming charges with the int'l plan.


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## marc (Mar 10, 2008)

Im with BB Unlimited 185 AED per month thing..

unlimited MB, emails and interest access but no calls, texts included, thats separate, plus you have to pay the the handset.... doesn't seem cheap to me.

UK - with 02 you have a free phone and pay 30 GBP a month and get hundreds of texts and minutes free.


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## zin (Oct 28, 2010)

Hi, sorry to bump up a year-old thread but the points made in here are still valid with regards to the roaming charges being only around data.

My question is does anyone have the unlimited domestic and can confirm that they don't get charged for internet browsing? I would go for the unlimited global but apparently that doesn't cover internet browsing and the e-mail side of it all is not important to me. 

Also do I need a package at all if I just want to use Blackberry Messenger?


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## ipshi (Jul 23, 2010)

i have the unlimited domestic data package and it covers upto 10 MB of data (net/downloads) anything beyond that you are charged .10dhs or something per KB

and yes you need a package for bbm (try getting the social networking package -- it covers FB, twitter and gtalk & u get BBM for free -- if you d/l whatsapp then u hav free msging with everyone who has an iphone too!! )

hope this helps!


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## Helios (Oct 22, 2008)

Unlimited global covers all *data* usage like emails, internet browsing, BBM, even google maps which I used in europe to find my way didnt got charged, you only have to pay for incoming/outgoing calls and SMS.


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## laviseth (Dec 21, 2011)

*bbm messanger*



marc said:


> Im with BB Unlimited 185 AED per month thing..
> 
> unlimited MB, emails and interest access but no calls, texts included, thats separate, plus you have to pay the the handset.... doesn't seem cheap to me.
> 
> UK - with 02 you have a free phone and pay 30 GBP a month and get hundreds of texts and minutes free. wonderin if the bbm messanger service is for free ie unlimited for 185 dhs.thanks a miion


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## laviseth (Dec 21, 2011)

185dhs 4 unlimited bbm messages in bkk singapore kuwait muscat india ? where do i get info from unless u have the reply.thanks a million


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## MaidenScotland (Jun 6, 2009)

laviseth said:


> 185dhs 4 unlimited bbm messages in bkk singapore kuwait muscat india ? where do i get info from unless u have the reply.thanks a million



No text talk on the forum please... use the full English word


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## Jynxgirl (Nov 27, 2009)

laviseth said:


> 185dhs 4 unlimited bbm messages in bkk singapore kuwait muscat india ? where do i get info from unless u have the reply.thanks a million


Can we get that in a form of english that most of us will understand?


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## CDN2012 (Jun 15, 2011)

I don't think its cheap. Windmobile in Canada has 
unlimited Canada/US talk
unlimited global text
unlimited Canada/US picture messaging
unlimited Data
for $40/month.

Wish they had similar over here.


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## Jynxgirl (Nov 27, 2009)

You make more, you spend more


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## CDN2012 (Jun 15, 2011)

Is it me, or is etisalat's website horrible. I hate trying to navigate through it.


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## Jynxgirl (Nov 27, 2009)

It is horrible. Each time they 'update' the page, they dont seem to remove the previous pages, but they are just out there in website lalala land, and if you do a search, they turn up. Then the site itself, sometimes, doesnt seem to link to the same new page, sometimes goes back to the old pages on some link but others go to the 'newest' page that is suppose to. It is like 9th graders were told to do a it web project.  Thats the thing about paying peanuts to master educated it engineers.... You get crap.


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