Blackberry's Virtual SIM To Offer 9 Mobile Numbers On One Device
Blackberry is planning to introduce a new Virtual SIM in India that will let people have 9 different mobile numbers on one device. The Canadian company has been trying to revive its business in India as a leader in enterprise and security domain. The new technology is called Virtual SIM Provisioning aka VSP which Blackberry got access to through acquisition of Movirtu - a leading virtual identity solutions player based in London in September 2014. India is not the first country to get this technology via Blackberry. The company is already offering similar solution in Africa; informed Blackberry MD, Sunil Lalvani.
The primary target for the service is likely to be the professionals who will be able to host multiple business and personal numbers on a single device - typically useful in companies that have the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy in place. Often, the employees have to carry multiple devices to work which is not very convenient. There are a lot of dual-SIM phone choices available in India; but there's no concrete solution available when your work demands you to be accessible on multiple (more than two) phone numbers. The Virtual SIM solution will address this problem very effectively.
Each of the number hosted on Virtual SIM will have its own billing for voice services, data services as well as messaging. The VSP solution will also work in sync with Blackberry's Enterprise Services (BES) - which allows the IT companies to set up appropriate policies for business phone numbers offered to the employees.
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Apparently, India is an appropriate market for Blackberry to roll out the Virtual SIM services. Lalvani informed ET that about 30L devices are shipped in India every month with Dual-SIM capability. Blackberry is now planning to roll out the service by the end of 2015 and is in talks with authorities for the compliance with regulatory framework.
At the time of launch, the Virtual SIM will host multiple phone numbers offered by a single telecom service operator. This is not a technology related issue but a regulatory one. The KYC norms do not allow Virtual SIM to have different carriers host numbers for a single user. We'd like to ask our readers their opinion on having access to 9 different mobile numbers on a single phone. Do you think that'll be incredibly useful?
Source: <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/hardware/one-sim-9-numbers-blackberry-plans-to-roll-out-virtual-sim-provisioning-in-india-by-year-end/articleshow/47188772.cms" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">One SIM, 9 Numbers? BlackBerry plans to roll out Virtual SIM Provisioning in India by year end - The Economic Times</a>
