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If you took advantage of the Blackberry EZ-Pass programme earlier this year to get free licences for BES 10 and then BES 12, you should have been receiving emails asking you to renew the support. For all EZPass upgraders, support expires on Jan 31st.
However it is easy to miss in these emails is that if you do not opt out, then you will be invoices for the renewal automatically. This could end up being very expensive. For my four licences, Blackberry were asking for over £700!
"Important information on opting out
If you do not wish to renew your Advantage Level Technical Support, you must opt-out of the program in order to avoid being invoiced following the close of the program. Please contact BlackBerry to receive instructions regarding the opt-out process."
What are the options here?
There are a number of options available, depending on your own needs.
- Renew.
The price quoted is for support on all of your Silver CALS that you got for free via the EZPASS programme. They also include support, so when BES 12.1 or higher is released, then you will be able to upgrade. - Opt out and pay nothing else.
The EZPASS programme provided Silver Perpetual CALs. Therefore if you opt out, then you will stay on the version that you have now. You will be unable to upgrade to new versions of BES for free and will not get any support. You need to contact Blackberry for the opt out. You will then get an email with a link to a web site to click on and confirm the opt out. If you have not had that email then you have not opted out. - Re-Purchase the licences fresh.
All new licences are annual subscription, so you need to pay to renew each year. This is what I am doing. New silver licences here in the UK are £15 a year, therefore I could renew my four licences for 10 years and still save money.
However another client was quoted the equivalent of £12 a user, so it made sense to renew.
Furthermore, if after 12 months they decided not to renew, then their licences are still valid, as they are perpetual. There would simply be no further support available.
Make a decision - doing nothing is not an option.
Remember though, I am not an employee of Blackberry and therefore the advice above is my interpretation of the licencing of BES. If you are unclear, you should speak to Blackberry Sales.
