[Andre M]

My company, a government contractor which I will not name, is changing most all employees to the Blackberry from regular nextel phones. I would like to get experienced users' feedback given the circumstances.

First off, we currently have to carry pagers because the nextel coverage in Southern California is not very good. Supposedly, the Blackberry will replace the phones and the pagers. I have my doubts as to whether the Blackberry will be reliable enough to allow us to dump the pagers.

(We don't know yet which model we are getting. My company is so cheap I wouldn't be surprised if we get refurbished 6510s!)

My main concern is that, since we work on exclusively classified projects, we can not use the Blackberry for our company Outlook email. We will only get a standalone, web-based email. Since only admin messages can be sent on this system, why go to all the trouble?

As for web browsing, I can not imagine any real use for that in the field, particularly with such a small screen.

My real complaint is, that as a division manager, the cost of the blackberries and service for everyone in my departments will be added to MY overhead. So unless these things actually boost productivity, I will suffer come bonus time. And I don't see how productivity can be helped by getting a watered-down email. Does this make sense to anyone? How will these things help me?

Thanks

[BB1877]

Coverage: Will Nextel be the BlackBerry provider? I can only speak to Verizon and T-Mobile. With Verizon, they have broad CDMA (analog) for voice, and "1X" data coverage, which is more limited. They are not getting the latest handsets from RIM though.

Our T-Mobile coverage is more spotty, since it's all-digital GPRS (voice and data) but they have the 7100t available.

I don't understand rolling out this many BlackBerry units if you're not going to use them for corporate Outlook e-mail. By default messages are triple-DES encrypted, and policies for passwords on the handhelds can be applied. Lost handhelds can be disabled. Here's an article on BlackBerry use in government:
http://www.rim.net/news/press/2004/p..._2004-01.shtml

My users report productivity gains of an hour a day...because they can convert previously wasted time (riding in a cab, waiting for plane, meal, etc.) into processing through their e-mails.

[barjohn]

I work for the government and I have heard rumors that Blackberries have been allowed to be used for classified communications, I couldn't swear to it. I know it meet FIPS 140-2 NIST/NSA security requirements. It is certainly secure enough for sensitive but unclass communications. You might do a search on one of the government security sites and see if it meets the classification level when combined with S/MIME which it also supports.

I live in Southern CA and I have had Nextel phones with very good coverage; however, there customer service is so bad that I and others I know left them for that reason. I have a T-mobile, AT&T and Verizon BB and the Verizon provides the best and most reliable coverage for both voice and data. Now that AT&T and Cingular have combined they are a close second. T-Mobile drops calls all over the place and is highly unreliable in the Riverside area.

[sempai]

Just to clarify, BB1877 - CDMA is a digital network.

I do agree that its silly to not use email on a BlackBerry, especially since the Nextel 'Berries can't even send SMS messages.

OP - make sure you read that government usage doc.

[sempai]

..and if it meets FIPS-140, you can use it on classified projects, anything S or TS would find it acceptable.