BT is to offer Research in Motion's Blackberry mobile email and personal information management system, the UK telco said today.

The deal puts BT alongside the likes of Vodafone, Orange and co., allowing it to sell Blackberry Enterprise Server software, Blackberry 7230 and 7730 wireless handhelds, and mobile data contracts to its corporate customers.

Traditionally, RIM has focused on selling through mobile phone networks - it recently partnered with Vodafone to brand its 'Charm' handset as the 7100v, for example - since they can add the GPRS data connectivity needed to make the system work.

The BT deal follows the same pattern - the telco will just have to buy the wireless connectivity component from one or several of the mobile phone networks. ®

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