How to: Get BlackBerry Internet Access without Data Plan (example: China Mobile)

I read may be a dozen articles about BlackBerry Internet access in China and all suggested to get a BlackBerry data plan in Hong Kong SAR and use the free roaming to get Internet access in China mainland. This guide does not need such a plan. You just need a GPRS enabled SIM card for your BlackBerry.

Finally I figured out how to get access to the Internet on my BlackBerry without a data plan. This howto is based on the following configuration:

• Device: BlackBerry Pearl (T-Mobile UK branded)
• BlackBerry OS: 4.2.0.67
• Provider: China Mobile

The problem with the BlackBerry is that you always have a browser available. Even though this browser might not be accessible directly (no icon on your BlackBerry’s desktop) you can get to it by using the “task switcher”. So press “Alt+Esc” and a window appears that might be some kind of familiar when you are a Windows desktop user. By pressing “Esc” again while still holding “Alt” you can switch between applications. One of them should be the so called “BlackBerry Browser”. If I switch to that browser I get the following message:

Your device does not currently have any Browser Configuration Service Book Entries.

Please contact your service provider to enable the Browser on your device.

So it is not possible to use this browser. But who cares? I downloaded the Opera Mini to my PC and installed it on my BlackBerry. The installation is really really easy going! When the installation was finished I could see the red “O” on my BlackBerry’s desktop.

By pressing this “O” Opera Mini starts and tries several ways to establish a connection to the Internet. The first attempt failed like expected. But there came up an error message referring me to an help site of Opera Mini which I should visit using my desktop browser. So I did and found the provider search of them. Just some seconds later I got the results for China Mobile:

China Mobile: Manual Setup*
Address cmnet
Proxy Address 10.0.0.172
Port 80

Now I added cmnet to my BlackBerry’s “Options » Adv. Options » TCP » APN”. Proxy addess and port cannot be entered at my BlackBerry. But that is not so important I thought and went back to the Opera “O”, clicked on it and it tried to establish a connection to the Internet again. And finally, it worked! I couldn’t believe that! It’s not that I didn’t try that before but I never tried another browser than the BlackBerry’s. Well, I tried Minuet Browser (BlackBerry Edition) some months ago but it didn’t work.