Etisalat racks up 14,000 BlackBerry customers

Etisalat has announced that one year after it first began offering the device it now has 14,000 subscribers to its BlackBerry service.

The operator launched the popular wireless handset in conjunction with BlackBerry developer Research in Motion in May last year.

The device was initially only available to corporate buyers in the UAE and then extended to consumers earlier this year.

Subscribers are increasingly using BlackBerry beyond the basic email service to deploy mobile business applications such as mobile customer relationship management (CRM) and business intelligence, Etisalat noted.

In addition to the UAE, BlackBerry is available in Saudi Arabia through Mobily, and in Bahrain through Batelco.

Emitac Mobile Solutions also signed an agreement in May with MTC Group to expand the availability of the BlackBerry across the Middle East and Africa region.