Zain, EMS and RIM Introduce the BlackBerry Solution in Niger

Niamey, Niger and Waterloo, ON, Canada - The mobile telecommunication operator Celtel Niger (Zain Niger), Emitac Mobile Solution (EMS) and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of the BlackBerry® solution in Niger. The BlackBerry solution brings together smartphones, software and services to allow easy wireless access to email, phone, calendar, web, multimedia and other mobile business and lifestyle applications. Zain customers in Niger will now be able to enjoy the freedom and productivity benefits of using BlackBerry® smartphones to stay connected to people and information on the go.

“We are proud to offer our customers the BlackBerry solution. The Zain brand has always been a pioneer in introducing new communication services in Niger, as well as in 22 other African countries and the Middle East,” said Louis Lubala, Managing Director of Zain Niger.

Babar Khan, CEO of Emitac Mobile Solution (EMS), RIM’s strategic channel partner in the region, said: “We are delighted to partner with Zain Niger and RIM to bring the many benefits of the BlackBerry solution to their customers. We will be supporting Zain Niger in their everyday mission by helping bring the latest products and services to the market.”

Mark Guibert, Vice President, Corporate Marketing at RIM added: “We are very pleased to introduce the BlackBerry solution in Niger, together with Zain and EMS. The BlackBerry Curve smartphone is a popular choice with people around the world who want a powerful, stylish and easy-to-use smartphone and we expect it to be popular with Zain’s customers as well.”

At launch Zain Niger will offer the BlackBerry® Curve™ 8320 smartphone with Wi-Fi® support and a full-AZERTY keyboard.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 packs many powerful features including an enhanced HTML browser that offers a mobile Web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The handset’s trackball acts like a computer mouse, allowing users to quickly scroll through a page, zoom in and out or click on hotlinks. The BlackBerry Curve 8320 also has an improved user interface and support for HTML email, and it allows users to download attachments as well as edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset using the preloaded DataViz® Documents To Go® software suite.

The BlackBerry Curve 8320 smartphone incorporates advanced email and messaging capabilities with a full AZERTY keyboard and built-in spell checker, as well as premium phone features, a comprehensive organizer and a large, ultra-bright, 320-by-240 display that supports more than 65,000 colors and comes with light-sensing technology that automatically adjusts backlighting for optimal viewing. In addition, it features Bluetooth® 2.0 support, a 2 megapixel camera with zoom, flash and video recording*, an advanced media player with desktop media management software and expandable memory storage of up to 16GB per card via its microSD/SDHC memory card slot.

Zain Niger is offering BlackBerry® Enterprise Server for corporate customers and BlackBerry® Internet Service for smaller businesses and individual users.

BlackBerry Enterprise Server is designed for organisations that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® and offers advanced security features and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

BlackBerry Internet Service is optimal for smaller businesses and individuals. It allows customers to access up to 10 supported corporate and personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts, such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail) from a single device.

* Video recording requires a microSD card, which may be sold separately.