It seems Blackberry users are finally getting VoIP support as well. While Nokia has been offering excellent VoIP support on its E-series platform, users of other smartphones (including Blackberry, Palm and Windows Mobile based devices) have been left in the cold. This is a great move by RIM because business users aren’t generally interested in cheaper minutes, but will be interested in connecting their smartphone to the company’s phone system.

It appears as though the new 8820 will provide support for Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) so it isn’t clear if you’ll be free to choose which VoIP service you connect the Blackberry to. And RIM may leave it to operators to decide if you can connect to any cheap VoIP service at your local Starbucks or only to the operator’s installed Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) service.

RIM’s co-CEO Mike Lazaridis says “The BlackBerry 8820 complements our carrier partners’ cellular networks with the added ability to stay connected via WiFi at home, through hotspots, and corporate campuses”, so it looks promising. The new Blackberry will also provide GPS navigation but there doesn’t seem to be any 3G support. The device will be released in the US late this summer, but should be available in Europe the coming weeks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 24th, 2007 at 11:47 CEST and is filed under Mobile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.