Visafone, RIM launch BlackBerry smartphones, services

Research In Motion (RIM) has announced the launch of BlackBerry services on Visafone’s CDMA mobile network in Nigeria.  is launching three BlackBerry smartphones, becoming the first carrier to introduce CDMA-enabled BlackBerry smartphones in Africa.

Beginning 26 October, all Visafone shops in Nigeria will be able to take pre-bookings from customers for the BlackBerry Curve 9310, BlackBerry Curve 9370 and BlackBerry Bold 9930 smartphones, which will be available in November.

The combination of the BlackBerry smartphones with BlackBerry services will give Visafone customers access to e-mail, internet and social networking apps, including BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), Facebook and Twitter.

Featuring the BlackBerry 7.1 OS, all the new BlackBerry smartphones provide a suite of phone, e-mail, messaging, social networking, multimedia, and consumer and business apps to keep customers connected and productive. The smartphones can also be used as mobile hotspots, allowing other Wi-Fi enabled devices to use the mobile network connection to access the internet.