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BlackBerry buys virtual SIM company

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 11 Sept 2014
BlackBerry CEO John Chen says there is a number of efficiency and convenience challenges facing enterprises.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen says there is a number of efficiency and convenience challenges facing enterprises.

BlackBerry has acquired Movirtu, a provider of virtual identity solutions for mobile operators that allows multiple numbers to be active on a single device.

The Canadian smartphone maker says the acquisition improves device management in bring your own device (BYOD) and corporate-owned personally enabled (COPE) environments. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Movirtu's virtual SIM platform allows both a business number and a personal number to be used on a single mobile device, with separate billing for voice, data and messaging usage on each number.

What this means, explains BlackBerry, is employees can switch between business and personal profiles without carrying multiple devices or SIM cards, and charges are appropriately billed to the company and the employee. "Additionally, in conjunction with the BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) platform, enterprise customers will be able to apply IT policies to the business number without impacting the usability of the device for personal use."

BlackBerry CEO John Chen says there remain a number of efficiency and convenience challenges facing enterprises in a BYOD and COPE world. "The acquisition of Movirtu complements our core strategy of providing additional value-added services, and it will leverage our key assets, including our BES platform, along with our existing global infrastructure which is connected to a large number of mobile operators around the world."

The acquisition also complements BlackBerry's Secure Work Space, Balance and other partitioning technologies, says the company. "With Movirtu, employees can switch between profiles for calls, data and messages, while on their home network and in roaming situations."

The new virtual SIM capabilities will be offered by BlackBerry through mobile operators to provide customers with multiple identity-based service offerings. BlackBerry will support the deployment of Movirtu technology by mobile operators on all major smartphone operating systems.

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