RIM eyes China Telecom for BlackBerry expansion

Kaufman Brothers analyst Shaw Wu said in a research note that Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry, is currently working on a deal to get China Telecom to carry the firm's devices on its 3G network. Wu expects a deal as early as February 2010.

Currently, China Mobile offers a few 2G BlackBerry devices, but overall RIM's inroads in China have been fairly minimal. Wu said the reason for RIM's limited traction in China is due to the Canadian manufacturer's reluctance to modify its security software for China. Although China Telecom is the smallest wireless operator in the country with 42 million subscribers, much of its customer base is enterprise and government--thus a good fit for the historically enterprise-targeted BlackBerry.

RIM isn't the only device company looking to expand to China. Last week China Unicom inked a three-year deal to carry Apple's iPhone. The agreement is not exclusive, however.

For more:
- see this StreetInsider.com article
- see this AppleInsider article

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