Using Fring like no tomorrow; until I got into the UK

So I got back into the UK late yesterday. The first thing I did, mobile wise? Switch on Fring.

I got addicted to it in Israel. Strange, because I’ve not previously been a heavy user of the service at all. I installed it ages ago, I like it, I reckoned it was very smart… and then I flashed my E61i for some reason.

Then I remember being extremely annoyed at T-Mobile UK for blocking various ports that prevented Agile Mobile from working.

(By the way: Agile Mobile, very cool application.. BUT $30 every time you change handsets or sim cards? Deary me.)

Thus having reinstalled Fring the other day, I was completed transfixed: All of a sudden my E61i became totally useful to me. I’m a heavy user of mobile email (via Good Mobile Messaging) but not mobile instant messaging.

Why?

T-Mobile.

Arses.

Let me explain.

I arrived into Heathrow, I switched my E61i on. Fring autostarted. I wanted to immediately use it to send a few instant messages to say I was back in the country.

Fring tried to connect.

Trying to connect.

Trying another way to connect.

Logging on. Waiting.

Arse.

It was only after I’d arrived into central London and was sat on the bus back to my place after having been glued to my handset WONDERING why Fring wasn’t working, that I realised.

The realisation hit me like a big fat missile.

Stupid T-Mobile.

I’m pretty confident that they recently blocked the ports on their Web N Walk plans for instant messaging. I tried upgrading my account to their bigger data usage plans. No dice. Nothing connects. Not Agile, not MSN Live, nothing. Gonna try it on 3UK in a moment and I suspect it will work brilliantly…

Time to change networks properly? Yes. I want to use Fring.