Microsoft teams with Indian telco VSNL to compete with BlackBerry

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 10 April 2007 09:03

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft has formed a partnership with VSNL International Pte Ltd, the international arm of Indian telco, Videsh Sanchar Nigam, to offer a hosted Microsoft Exchange email service to mobile operators worldwide.
VSNL International and Microsoft claim that their 'white label' service, ReadyAccess, will enable mobile operators to offer their customers "a superior quality end-to-end business messaging and collaboration solution with added push email connectivity in a cost effective and expedited manner."

The service will compete head to head with Research in Motion's BlackBerry technology and with Nokia's Intellisync Mobile Suite,  which has just been selected by Japanese operator, Willcom as the foundation for its synchronised, real-time email, calendar and contacts service. It will also compete with technology from Good Technologies, a developer of mobile messaging and collaboration tools recently acquired by Motorola.

Research firm IDC predicted last September that Blackberry would face very stiff competition from Microsoft, Motorola and Nokia.  in the mobile messaging and collaboration market. Significantly the Microsoft/VSNL solution does not require the operator to introduce another brand to its customers.

ReadyAccess provides MNO end users with a single point messaging and collaboration service, accessible both on PC/laptop and mobile devices with added push mail connectivity. Customer mailboxes are provided under a common optimised and secure infrastructure that includes email security applications, servers, storage and connectivity.