8ta BlackBerry launched with aggressive pricing

8ta and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced the availability of the BlackBerry solution for 8ta customers with free mobile YouTube streaming of up to 500MB per month.

The offer will be available in 8ta and TelkomDirect outlets from 24 April 2011.

At launch, 8ta will offer a free BlackBerry Internet Service subscription for the first three months for customers on Contract 1 with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone.

At the end of the three months, 8ta customers subscribed to the hero deal will enjoy a further discounted BlackBerry Internet Service  plan of R49 (incl. VAT) per month for the remaining 21 month duration of their contract.

“It is our aim to shake up the market by offering simplicity and value to our customers. The BlackBerry solution offers the best of both worlds. We believe that the BlackBerry solution will help to ensure that our customers go beyond just using email and Internet on their smartphones. We also aim to enhance the offering with free mobile YouTube streaming, which is a first in South Africa,” said Amith Maharaj, Managing Executive of 8ta.

“We are pleased to work with 8ta to offer the BlackBerry solution to customers in South Africa,” says Deon Liebenberg, Managing Director for Africa at RIM.

At launch 8ta will offer the BlackBerry Curve 3G and BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphones. Soon thereafter, the BlackBerry Bold 9780 and BlackBerry Torch 9800 smartphones will also be offered.

8ta will offer BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate customers and BlackBerry Internet Service for smaller businesses and individual users.

Pricing

8ta’s special value added offering to all 8ta customers provides the choice to nominate one Telkom landline, which customers can make unlimited free calls to for 24 months; this offer is available to contract customers.

1. 8ta Pre-paid customers receive free voice airtime for calls received on their 8ta number. 8ta further offers 50 free SMSs for every 5 SMSs sent on the same day to all customers.
2. All BlackBerry smartphones will be available on competitive Pre-paid, Contract and Saver options.
3. All 8ta BlackBerry data packages will offer free mobile YouTube streaming of up to 500MB per month.

All other customers shall ascribe to the fees below in addition to the base plan fee:

1. BlackBerry Internet Service – R59.00 incl. VAT per month
2. BlackBerry Enterprise Server Service – R89.00 incl. VAT per month

Some of the current 8ta contract deals on BlackBerry:

BlackBerry Curve 8520 with BIS – R90 per month (first three months), R139 thereafter

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