BSNL to launch BlackBerry services by April

[Pratim]

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will launch BlackBerry services by April.

Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director, BSNL, said: "We have got the required approvals from the government and will launch BlackBerry services by next month."

At present, four telecom operators - Reliance Communications, Airtel, Vodafone and Tata Teleservices - are providing BlackBerry services.

BlackBerry phones offer a host of services, including allowing users to access their e-mail on the move. BlackBerry devices, manufactured by the Canada-based Research In Motion (RIM), had earlier come under scrutiny after Indian security agencies expressed concern that the data being transmitted through the device could not be intercepted due to the high encryption codes being used by the company.

However, Canadian Minister of of Industry Tony Clement, after a meeting with Communications Minister A. Raja in February, had said the security concerns over the BlackBerry phones had been 'resolved as far as possible'.

[Pratim]

This move would help the operator gain an edge over the others. Here’s how::

• BSNL is one of the two operators offering 3G services in the country.
• The other operators which provide Blackberry services, are in the queue to bid for 3G, which is not expected to take place soon…
• Thus, launching the service in April could give it a first-mover advantage in the Blackberry-3G zone.

However, the user base for the service is quite small and with Airtel and Vodafone providing ‘killer’ plans for Blackberry users, BSNL might just find it tough to compete against the private telcos. We expect BSNL to come up with some equally good plans to counter competition.