Configure WhatsApp without BIS for blackberry in Kenya

Most blackberry users in Kenya and other parts of the world are locked from using services such as Facebook and Whatsapp unless they subscribe to the prepaid blackberry offers by most internet service providers. These offers by major mobile subscribers sometime can be costly to run on a daily. If you have experienced this kind of problem you don't have to worry, I will explain how you can use your Blackberry phone to access whatsapp using your bundles.

I came up with this post after assisting one of my pals configure his blackberry phone to use WhatsApp without having the Blackberry internet service enabled. It seemed like a daunting task but I got the way around pretty easy, after all it’s not illegal. Most android users enjoy these services without going through so much hustle to use WhatsApp and Facebook unlike their blackberry counterparts.



The first thing you need to do on your blackberry phone is; go to options then Device then advanced system settings and select TCP IP. You will find the APN option where you can change and modify the APN depending with the network you want to use. Edit the APN and then make sure the password and APN are settings are enabled.

For safaricom users APN: safaricom, username: saf password: data
For Airtel use APN: ke.celtel.com
For orange Kenya APN: bew.orange.co.ke
After making these changes to your profile you make sure the following settings are set as below.

Firewall settings should be put off. Go to options >> security >> Firewall and make sure everything is disabled. This firewall can be used to block Text messages and emails. But if you don’t need to block any of these just disable it by default.

If encryption and compression are on, put them off also.

Then head to Browser push and make sure that all of them are enabled. This setting is found on Options>> Device >> Advanced options then Browser Push.

The next step is loading the application via the native blackberry browser, make sure you download the application from Whatsapp main website and choose blackberry version. You will be prompted to allow the application to by giving it the necessary security rights. Then click download after the download starts. Launch the application then after it loads disconnect the phone by removing the battery without switching off. Reboot the phone and enjoy using Whatsapp. Some issues that may arise include the application failing to connect to the cellular data which means data is may be is not allowed on the application.You can get an error saying "Verification requires a WI-Fi or cellular data connection,that could not be found"
Another alternative is to use Wi-Fi connection to download the application then after that enable 3G network for phone number verification message from Whatsapp. Note also that you have to use the native blackberry browser to download WhatsApp.
Remember this steps that I outlined above can be used to download other applications such a opera mini if you are tired of using the Native blackberry browser that comes with your phone by default. You can always go back to using WhatsApp on BIS plan by de-activating the APN profile. I will be carrying out another post on how to configure your mobile phone to use blackberry services in Kenya soon.