MTNL to take on BlackBerry with Bharat Berry

State-owned telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) launched Bharat Berry services in Mumbai on Friday.
Bharat Berry positions itself as a cheaper and more accessible replacement option for users of BlackBerry services which continue to face the threat of disruption as it does not meet the legal intercept requirements of Indian government.

Bharat Berry, available on MTNL for a monthly subscription rate of Rs80, will allow users to have their emails pushed to their handsets — much like SMS — and also makes it possible to synchronise personal contacts and calendar settings at work as well those provided by Google.

The monthly subscription fee does not include data charges that depend on the number of emails received and sent by users.
Bharat Berry services work on nearly 80% of handsets available in the country. including those running on different operating platforms such as Symbian from Nokia or Android from Google.
The service has been tested on several entry-level handsets, according to Bharat
Berry.

“We are looking to make every handset in this  country an empowered one,” said Ajay Data, director, Bharat Berry.