Windows Phone Thoughts: T-Mobile to BlackBerry Users: No Internet For You!

"On December 1, 2004, T-Mobile made a network change intended to prevent some users from taking advantage of a wide open hole in their network. PDA and Smartphone users could get full, unlimited GPRS (TCP) access by subscribing to the $4.99 T-Zones plan, rather than the $19.99 GPRS plan. This was possible because up until now, the wap.voicestream.com APN (Access Point Name - the server used to provide network access), used by T-Zones, allowed the same wide-open full GPRS connectivity as the internet2.voicestream.com and internet3.voicestream.com APNs that the full $19.99 GPRS plans use. In response to this, T-Mobile shut down TCP access via wap.voicestream.com by blocking all ports except those used for WAP access. The problem is that paying Blackberry customers are configured to use wap.voicestream.com for TCP access, and they were cut off, too. This has caused any application that needs TCP connectivity to the internet (IM applications, 3rd party web browsers and mail clients, etc.) to stop working."



Hey, way to go, T-Mobile! I'm SURE that the amount of money you're losing from port-restricted access is FAR greater than what you get from all of those pesky enterprise clients. I mention this because a few of us have been using that exact loophole for months now. Personally, I always expected it to close, at which point I'd pony up the cash for full access, instead of the port-limited access available for free. In fact, I can honestly say that it was because of the free access that I switched from Cingular to T-Mobile, and I'll bet that a lot of other people did the same. What do you think about this? Boneheaded move, or justified action?