Cbeyond Expands BeyondMobile Handset Options For Small Businesses To Include The BlackBerry 8703e

HostReview.com
Thursday, December 14, 2006; 01:46 AM

Cbeyond, Inc. and Research In Motion (RIM) announced the availability of the BlackBerry® 8703e on the Cbeyond BeyondMobile™ service, a mobile voice and data service designed specifically for small businesses. The BlackBerry 8703e is designed to keep users connected to important information and communications from a sleek and stylish device with a full QWERTY keyboard, which enables quick and accurate message typing and information entry.

Cbeyond is an IP-based managed services provider that delivers integrated packages of voice, mobile, and broadband Internet services to over 25,000 small businesses. The addition of the BlackBerry 8703e to its BeyondMobile service provides leading BlackBerry functionality to Cbeyond’s customers, allowing them to maintain wireless connectivity to a full suite of applications including email, mobile phone, organizer, Web browser, instant messaging and text messaging. It also supports a wide range of other business data applications and offers advanced security and manageability.

“Our customers asked for additional handset options and we delivered with the addition of the BlackBerry 8703e handset, which enhances our BeyondMobile service and strengthens our mobile offering,” said Brent Cobb, vice president of product management and general manager of mobile for Cbeyond. “The BlackBerry 8703e delivers premium quality voice and data services and gives our small business customers access to the same handset devices offered to larger enterprises.”

The BlackBerry 8703e has a bright, high-resolution LCD display providing a large viewable workspace and includes intelligent light sensing technology to automatically optimize screen and keyboard lighting levels for ideal indoor and outdoor viewing. It also offers premium phone features and intuitive call management features such as smart dialing; speed dialing; call forwarding; dedicated “send,” “end,” “mute” and “convenience” keys; built-in speakerphone for hands-free use; and Bluetooth® support for use with headsets and car kits.

“BlackBerry is the leading wireless platform for businesses of all sizes, allowing mobile professionals to stay connected, responsive and productive on the go,” said Mark Guibert, vice president, corporate marketing, Research In Motion. “We are very pleased to be working with Cbeyond to offer the powerful new BlackBerry 8703e.”

For Cbeyond’s customers, the BlackBerry® Enterprise Server tightly integrates with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM Lotus® Domino® and Novell® GroupWise® and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based, wireless access to email and other corporate data.

In addition, BlackBerry® Internet Service allows users to access up to ten corporate and personal e-mail accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and most popular ISP e-mail accounts) from a single device.

Cbeyond’s integrated packages of voice, mobile and broadband Internet services start at $495 per month. The company bundles long distance, toll-free and mobile minutes together. Unused landline minutes can be applied to mobile minutes and vice versa for free. The sharing of minutes is seamless to Cbeyond customers and requires no customer intervention. BeyondMobile customers can also pool all mobile minutes across employees so there’s no need to juggle different rate plans. With the company’s integrated service, customers receive one consolidated bill for all of their landline and mobile communications services, and have only one number to call for support.