Blackberry Agrees to License its Software to India’s Optiemus Infracom

Blackberry CEO John Chen

Canada-based multinational wireless telecoms software company Blackberry has announced an ‘exclusive, long-term licensing agreement’ to license its software and services to India’s Optiemus Infracom.

The agreement allows the Delhi-based telecoms company to design, manufacture and sell Blackberry-branded mobile devices – that include the Blackberry for Android software – in markets including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.

Alex Thurber, senior VP and general manager for mobility solutions at Blackberry, said: “India is a very important market for BlackBerry, so we are delighted our latest licensing partnership will extend the BlackBerry software experience to more customers and support the Indian government’s ‘Make in India’ agenda. This is an important milestone in our strategy to put ‘the smart in the phone’, providing state-of-the-art security and device software on a platform relevant to mobile customers, with more localisation.”

Ashok Gupta, chairman of Optiemus Infracom, said: “This agreement will help us expand mobility choices by designing, manufacturing and offering secure BlackBerry devices which are made in India, for customers in India, as well as Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh.”

The agreement continues Blackberry’s transition from a smartphone device maker to a provider of only software and services – as it announced in September. It follows a similar agreement with TCL Communication – which covers the remainder of the globe in the providing of Blackberry-branded devices.