Data connection refused on BlackBerry 4.2.1 firmware
by Volker Weber
As you may recall I was having difficulties with my O2 SIM and the BlackBerry 8800. As it turns out this is not an 8800 problem but a 4.2.1 problem. I have been talking to an engineer while being at CeBIT, and what has persuaded him to look at the issue thoroughly was showing him on the spot that the Pearl was having no problems connecting to their APN, but RIM's own 8800 devices would not.
After some debugging it turned out the device thinks that the SIM does not have their APN authorized. I discussed a few things, for instance that an early beta of 4.2.1 that I had tried last November also rendered the Pearl incapable of connecting with this SIM. The engineer then told me that they had changed the way the OS reads a USIM (Universal SIM for UMTS and GPRS/EDGE), which is exactly what I have. It appears that my SIM has a different idea of how the device should talk to it. Not only do I get a "connection refused" from the network, but the device is also not able to show my phone number which is stored on the SIM.
Now I hope that RIM not only fixes this issue soon in 4.2.1 but that they will also let me know when it is fixed. I don't want to find out by trial and error.
Comments
Do you have any information about wether O2 officially supports (and sells) the BB 8800?
In the UK, they do. Not in Germany though.
Do you know if only USIM cards from O2 Germany are affected?
I have no idea. The engineer was quite surprised and said they are using the standard way to read the USIM and that my USIM may be behaving in a non-standard way.
Update regarding O2 & BB 8800: I spoke with some O2 guy at the CeBIT who told me that they will omit the BB8800 totally and instead will introduce a follow-up device in May.
I have an older BB that is the model 7280. It was recently unlocked for any service with a SIM Card. I have a Cingular SIM card and when I put it in the BB it says "Data Connection Refused". It DOES show my phone number. And I DO have data services on my cell plan.
How will this message affect the operation of the device??
Data service is not good enough. You need Blackberry service. How does this message affect the operation? You won't be able to send and receive mails.
