Traveling abroad with your BlackBerry smartphone is quite convenient because you can still receive all your emails wherever you are in the world. On the other hand you might be confronted with significant costs associated with data use and roaming costs. If you are used to a data flat rate in your home country you can quickly end up with several hundred dollars additional costs on your phone bill.

While turning off your BlackBerry will prevent that you receive emails it also means that you can’t be reached via phone.

Fortunately BlackBerry smartphones have included an option to turn off this email service.

Turn of email but not phone services

If you want to turn off the BlackBerry email functionality but keep the telephone service on you can simply turn it off by opening going to Applications -> Options -> Mobile Network.

There you can find the option Data Services and you can choose between On, Off and Off when Roaming.

On

All data services are activated and you can receive emails and use other applications that use data services.

Off

All data services are deactivated, no emails will get delivered to your BlackBerry but you will still be able to make phone calls.

Off when Roaming

As soon as you are registered with a mobile network in another country the BlackBerry will turn off data service prevent additional costs.

So if you want to escape the email flood and enjoy a few days without email you can simply turn off data. Whenever you are traveling to a different country turn off roaming in order to limit your costs.

I highly recommend to activate Off when Roaming if you are not regularly traveling to other countries to ensure that there are no surprises when you get your next phone bill.