BlackBerry To Offer Dual-Billing After Movirtu Acquisition

BlackBerry has acquired Movirtu and will integrate the British-based firm’s virtual identity technology into BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES), so employees in a BYOD or corporate owned personally enabled (COPE) environment can split the bill for personal and business phone use.

Businesses will be able to issue Android, BlackBerry and iOS users with two phone numbers, meaning employees no longer have to carry two separate devices or a spare SIM card and each party is billed fairly and accurately.

BlackBerry Movirtu

“Enterprise customers will now be able to provision a single device for corporate and personal use; allow discrete enterprise policies to be applied to only the work side of the device, while allowing full usability of the personal portion of the device; split bills for voice, data and messaging; and provide the ability to switch between profiles easily,” says John Sims, president of global enterprise services at BlackBerry.

Dual-billing is already available on Samsung Knox 2.0, one of BlackBerry’s main rivals in the Mobile Device Management (MDM) market, and BlackBerry says the integration of the technology will complement other BES features, such as Secure Work Space and Balance, which separate personal and corporate functions on a device.

No financial details regarding the acquisition have been disclosed, by Movirtu CEO Carsten Brinkschulte says the two companies’ visions are closely aligned.

“BlackBerry is the best partner to help us carry forward our vision of redefining the mobile experience by introducing virtual identities,” he says. “We address the challenges of BYOD and COPE by providing our unique and innovative technology solution through BlackBerry’s existing relationships with mobile operators and customers around the world.”

BlackBerry was put up for sale last year but after failing to find a buyer, instead agreed a new finance package and appointed John Chen as CEO. Chen implemented a new recovery plan centred around management, messaging and security services, QNX-embedded systems and high-end smartphones for businesses – the majority of which will have keyboards.

Chen announced earlier this year that the restructure was complete and there would be no more layoffs at the company, which has seen its workforce reduced from 17,500 to 7,000.

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