BIS and BlackBerry 10 explained

BlackBerry Messenger and other secure services, such as those for enterprises, will still run over BlackBerry’s infrastructure.

This is according to Rory O’Neill, VP of product & channel marketing at BlackBerry (formerly RIM).

O’Neill was answering questions about what is going to happen with BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) and how BlackBerry 10 uses the BIS infrastructure.

He said that they are not quite ready to talk about how South Africa’s BIS-based data packages are going to change as they are “still talking through the commercial terms” with carriers.

“We had a tremendous proposition in this market and other emerging markets,” O’Neill said, adding that in many cases BlackBerry was people’s first experience of the Internet.

O’Neill said that they believe in BlackBerry 7, hinting at the fact that the current R59/month BIS offerings in South Africa aren’t going to change for older BlackBerry devices.

Rory O’Neill

He went on to say that the first BlackBerry 10 devices are positioned more at the mobile Internet market rather than the messaging market, and that they are less price sensitive.

Combined with reliable information received by MyBroadband, this is a strong hint that BIS packages as we know them today in South Africa will not be coming to the BlackBerry Z10 and the BlackBerry Q10.

This does not mean that there won’t be some flat-rated component to BlackBerry data deals, however.

O’Neill explained that BlackBerry 10 uses both their own infrastructure and the carrier’s infrastructure to deliver the “BlackBerry experience”.

“Quite honestly mobile operators have great mobile architectures,” O’Neill said.

BlackBerry 10 phone

O’Neill didn’t want to say whether messaging services other than BBM, including the likes of Twitter and Facebook, would be able to run over BlackBerry infrastructure.

He did add that they worked “really really closely” with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other properties to integrate it into the BlackBerry 10 experience, however.

Asked whether non-corporate email services will still run over BlackBerry architecture, O’Neill said he didn’t know, but said that the mail experience will be the same as before.

BlackBerry 10 smartphone

More BlackBerry 10 news

BlackBerry 10 BIS changes in SA confirmed

BlackBerry 10 device prices and launch dates

BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 device details revealed

BlackBerry 10 SA launch date revealed