AT&T Announces BlackBerry Professional Software for Small Business
21 April 2008 - 3:01PM
PR Newswire (US)
Easy-to-Use Solution Offers Businesses Collaboration, Security and
Control Of BlackBerry Smartphones SAN ANTONIO, April 21
/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Small business owners and office managers
can now get big-business advantages in a BlackBerry(R) solution.
AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX:
RIM) announced today the availability of BlackBerry(R) Professional
Software for AT&T's small business customers, which provides a
wireless communications and collaboration solution with advanced
security features designed specifically for small and midsize
companies. BlackBerry Professional Software is a logical and
intuitive wireless communications and collaboration solution that
provides small business-focused features, security performance and
support options in an easy-to-use solution, supporting up to 30
wireless users. It enables wireless access to e-mail, calendar,
contacts, business data and Internet access while helping owners
and office managers focus on running their business. This new
solution helps them to respond quickly to their customers and
provides employees with the ability to accomplish more each day by
using their BlackBerry smartphones from AT&T. "BlackBerry
Professional Software will allow our small business customers to
more easily afford and implement BlackBerry service so that they
have many of the controls and security features and the
productivity benefits of staying connected that large business
customers enjoy," said Michael Woodward, AT&T vice president,
Business Voice/Data and Wireless Products. AT&T is the world's
largest BlackBerry service provider. BlackBerry Professional
Software provides a simplified installation process and the full
suite of advanced security features and IT policies that come with
the BlackBerry(R) Enterprise Server software, such as sophisticated
end-to-end encryption to protect communications and information --
but with simplified administration. With pre-defined IT policies,
it is also easy to control content protection strength from content
on the handset, owner-information settings, password use, password
complexity, timeouts and more. A lost or stolen smartphone can be
locked down, and proprietary business information can be erased
immediately. BlackBerry Professional Software also provides control
over the company's BlackBerry smartphones, allowing the owner or
office manager to limit certain features on an employee's
smartphone, and the solution enables data to be backed up
wirelessly. Changes to control settings can occur in seconds as IT
policies are "pushed" to the smartphone over the air. BlackBerry
Professional Software is designed to be logical, intuitive and
straightforward, so a small business owner or office manager can
install it easily on an existing e-mail server (IBM(R) Lotus(R)
Domino(R), Microsoft Windows Small Business Server or Microsoft(R)
Exchange). A pre-install assistant streamlines the simple
installation process, and configuration is automatic. Controlling
security and device-management functions, such as the examples
cited above, is quickly and easily accomplished through wizards and
quick links. If a small business grows beyond 30 users, the
BlackBerry Professional Software solution can be upgraded to
BlackBerry Enterprise Server, and the BlackBerry Professional
Software Client Access Licenses (CALs) can be used with the
BlackBerry Enterprise Server. AT&T's small business customers
can rely on the BlackBerry Professional Software to grow with their
business at home. They can also rely on AT&T's industry-best
wireless international footprint to keep them connected on their
BlackBerry smartphones, with voice calling in more than 200
countries and wireless e-mail and Internet access in more than 145
countries. PRICING AND AVAILABILITY The BlackBerry Professional
Software package that supports five wireless users out of the box
is priced at $499, with a 10-user version priced at $849. These
packages include the server software along with CALs. Additional
CALs can be purchased individually, in five-packs and in 10-packs
to grow the deployment as the small business grows. Special
introductory promotional pricing for software and CALs, as well as
a large portfolio of BlackBerry smartphones, is available through
AT&T's small business account representatives or the Key
Contact Center at 866-768-8406. BlackBerry small business customers
also can take advantage of AT&T's new BusinessTalk voice plans,
which start at $60 a month for five users and 700 Anytime Minutes
and can be expanded for $9.99 a line to accommodate up to 40 users
and 20,000 Anytime Minutes. Companies may choose BusinessTalk with
either unlimited Mobile to Mobile or Push To Talk features. About
AT&T AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) is a premier communications holding
company. Its subsidiaries and affiliates, AT&T operating
companies, are the providers of AT&T services in the United
States and around the world. Among their offerings are the world's
most advanced IP-based business communications services and the
nation's leading wireless, high speed Internet access and voice
services. In domestic markets, AT&T is known for the directory
publishing and advertising sales leadership of its Yellow Pages and
YELLOWPAGES.COM organizations, and the AT&T brand is licensed
to innovators in such fields as communications equipment. As part
of its three-screen integration strategy, AT&T is expanding its
TV entertainment offerings. Additional information about AT&T
Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T
subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com/.
(C) 2008 AT&T Intellectual Property. All rights reserved.
AT&T, the AT&T logo and all other AT&T marks contained
herein are trademarks of AT&T Intellectual Property and/or
AT&T affiliated companies. All other marks contained herein are
the property of their respective owners. The BlackBerry and RIM
families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive
properties and trademarks of Research In Motion Limited. Note: This
AT&T news release and other announcements are available as part
of an RSS feed at http://www.att.com/rss. For more information,
please review this announcement in the AT&T newsroom at
http://www.att.com/newsroom. DATASOURCE: AT&T Inc. CONTACT:
John Kampfe of AT&T Inc., +1-973-637-9387, Web site:
http://www.att.com/
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