RIM Opens Singapore Customer Support Center; 1st In Asia

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- Research In Motion, Tuesday opened its first customer center in Asia to provide product and technical assistance to the growing number of Blackberry users in the region.

The center in Singapore will initially employ 60 people with the number expected to rise to 200 in the next two years, Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison said at a news conference.

He said RIM currently partners 29 telecommunication companies in the Asia Pacific region and expects to add another 10 partner-carriers in coming months.

Morrison didn't provide an estimate of the number of Blackberry users in the region.

-By Vladimir Guevarra, Dow Jones Newswires; (65) 6415 4155; vladimir.guevarra@dowjones.com

-Edited by Alan Soughley

(END) Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 3rd October 2006