title: Why blackberry apps cannot do network i/o AT ALL outside of North America without BIS?
body: <p>I was told by a consultant in a 3 hours discussion that basically blackberry 3rd party apps (Distributed through AppWorld or not) <strong>cannot</strong> perform any network I/O outside of North America without becoming an alliance member. Is this true?</p>
  
  <p>Basically the story is that only North America can make use of APN connection, anywhere else in the world you have to rely on BIS for your network connection. And the network connection over BIS can only be made to a server that is provisioned by RIM. You will have to become and alliance member in order to have your server provisioned. </p>
  
  <p>This sounds kinda silly to me, because if I am a third party developer I cannot do network io at all outside of NA. That's a huge limitation on the AppWorld developers!</p>
  
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  <p>I'm not talking about a network socket over Wifi connection, only concerned with network connectivity over the cell network.</p>