RIM Aims To Add 150 Telecom Partners By Feb 2007

SINGAPORE -(Dow Jones)- BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion hopes to boost its telecommunications industry partners by signing another 150 companies by February, a senior company executive said Tuesday.

"We plan to add another 150 partners this (fiscal) year. We're right on track in doing that," Chief Operating Officer Don Morrison said at a news conference in Singapore, adding RIM currently has over 200 partner-carriers.

RIM's fiscal year ends in February.

Many of the targeted 150 carrier partners are in the Caribbean, Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East, he said.

RIM opened its first customer center in Asia Tuesday to provide product and technical assistance to the growing number of Blackberry users in the region.

The center, located in Singapore, will initially employ 60 people, with the number expected to rise to 200 in the next two years, Morrison said.

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 Leslie Shaffer

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 3rd October 2006