China Mobile Opens BlackBerry Internet Service In Guangzhou

China Mobile Guangzhou and RIM have jointly announced that they will open the BlackBerry Internet Service in Guangzhou, which becomes one of the first Chinese cities to have the BIS.

Prior to this, RIM's president in China Gregory Shea revealed to local media that the company would cooperate with China Mobile to launch the BIS business. At the beginning of May 2011, China Mobile Beijing started a activity that allows BlackBerry users to use the BIS service for free for two months. China Mobile Beijing offers two service packages to small- and medium-sized enterprise users and individual users, with the month fees of CNY98 and CNY108.

The package launched by China Mobile Guangzhou, which includes the BIS service, costs CNY98 for each month. Three modes of BlackBerry smartphone products, including 8980, 8520, and 8910, are available in the marketplace.

The BlackBerry Internet Service allows BlackBerry users to access POP3, IMAP, and Outlook Web App email accounts without connecting through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. The service is usually provisioned through a mobile phone service provider, though RIM actually runs the service. This service uses RIM's proprietary push technology to the BlackBerry devices over cellular carriers. BIS retrieves email from mail servers by polling a POP3 or IMAP server and offers additional synchronization capabilities, such as calendars or contacts for some webmail providers.