Activate Google Talk and other messenger services to your Vodafone UK blackberry

If you have a vodafone contract, and you change your phone to a blackberry, you will need to follow a few steps to get your blackberry messenger services working along with google talk, facebook  and other internet related services. 

First, you will need to phone up your service provider, and then ask them to add to your plan the blackberry and internet package. These are two separate packages, but they will combine them for a reduced price of roughly £10 a month.

Once the blackberry services have been added to your phone, you will then have to speak to someone at the technical services department. You have to get the technical support person to turn on the internet services. Just tell them that you added the internet but it isn't working, and needs to be activated.

Once the technical support person has properly activate the intenret on your blackberry, you should turn the blackberry of, remove the battery and sim and then turn the backberry back on. Once the phone has loaded, again turn it off, but put your SIM back into the blackberry, and again turn it back on. 

Now you will have to go to the blackberry options screen and select mobile network. You will then be in a screen that has the option to select data services. This must be set to on, as this is the actual setting that will turn off your automatic internet connection.

You will then need to select advanced options, and then select the host routing table, and there should be a set of GPRS UK data entries. You need to select the option menu and choose register now. This will take a moment, and register your mobile properly with the data services.

This should be you completely working now, and your phone should have already started to show a few updates that where not there before. These come from the vodafone update.

If you thought that you have the internet but you are getting error messages when trying to use the messenger services such as "service is not enabled for this handset" then the reason is that the Internet hasn't been activated by the technical support. Even if you have had the sales person confirm that you now have it on your phone you won't.

There is a difference you will notice right away with your blackberry phone when it is properly activated. You should once you have the blackberry properly configured, be able to connect to your messenger services without a hitch.

You will have a bit more you have to do if you want to activate google talk on your blackberry mobile. You will try to log in, and it will keep showing the message that you have entered the wrong username and the password does not match. The reason for this is that you have to set your username to USERNAME@googlemail.com

It should then still say your password and username don't match, and the reason for this is that you have to click this link https://www.google.com/accounts/DisplayUnlockCaptcha

and activate your account via screen captha. Once you have done this your blackberry will now be working perfect on vodafone. This guide will apply also to the other networks including T-mobile, and orange. 

Google talk will work fine on your existing contacts, however, if you have a website with the google talk widget, then this won't work with the blackberry. The reason is that the link requires adobe flash, and blackberry doesn't work with flash. This also applies to the google group chat option.