How come Alltel is the only operator that has spoken out about the potential shutdown of BlackBerry service? Alltel told RIM it's concerned about a shutdown that will affect its 100,000 email customers if NTP wins a conjunction against the company. A shutdown will affect a lot more customers with carriers like Verizon, Sprint Nextel and Cingular, but we haven't heard a peep from them. Evidently they don't want to interfere with the business affairs of RIM or influence the legal outcome of RIM's fight.
Huh? What about the welfare of their own customers? We haven't even heard how they might try and help their valuable business customers regain wireless email services if BlackBerry shuts down. Instead, they have relied on RIM's assertions that it has a work-around solution. But as one analyst notes, there is no guarantee that such a solution will work properly or that it won't be in a patent war again over the workaround.
To read more about Alltel's urging of RIM to settle with NTP:
- check out this article from The Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)