First products by the Canadian Research In Motion (RIM) emerged long ago, in 1999, and were in fact two-way pagers providing an instant messaging capability which was in demand among corporate clients back in those days. Secure messaging and handy interface were the two things which distinguished RIM products developed for the corporate clients… Special messaging software supporting the Push function allows for instant messaging with checkable delivery status. The transferred data is automatically encrypted with strong algorithms. Besides the security issues, the service helps to save traffic by optimizing the sent data packets.

It was not until recently that Blackberry started offering their services in Russia. Earlier the FSB (Federal Security Bureau) prevented the import of such devices because the Russian law provides for full access to the individuals’ messages granted to the state intelligence services, yet the manufacturer denied all requests to disclose the e-mail encryption keys. However a compromise was ultimately found: the carrier companies agreed to let FSB experts into their e-mail servers.

According to what MTS are saying, about a dozen of large companies make use of the Blackberry handheld devices. The representatives of “Vympelkom” made statements of thirteen major clients. The demand is steadily high despite the openness of the information to the FSB agents and the high service costs. According to the press secretary Yekaterina Osadchaya’s statements, “Vympelkom” isn’t going to make the service available to private individual primarily because of the company’s policy providing for the installation of mail servers in the client’s premises and not on the carrier’s platform like the way MTS does.

To use the Blackberry service provided by MTS, the client company is bound to pay a one-time fee of about 5500 euros, obtain licenses for each individual user (285 euros each) and pay a monthly fee of 35 euros. “Vympelkom” offers their services at a comparable price.

The market experts diverge in opinion as far as the likeness of success of this service with the individuals is considered, mainly because of a high price and limited assortment of models in the Blackberry portfolio. The only model available for purchase right away is Blackberry 8700g (510 euros). Nevertheless, according to the latest news available, the MTS company has successfully obtained the import rights for the 800 and 8310 Curve models (either priced at 285 euros) and has high hopes for getting the rights for Blackberry Bold.