During this past week at the Huawei & ICT ministry’s public sector ICT forum in Zimbabwe, apparently someone asked when the government would relax current restrictions on BlackBerry Internet Services in the country. That question resulted in this article on ITWeb Africa.
We’ve always thought it strange that as a country, we still talk about BlackBerry (and BBM). BlackBerry has been history since quite a while now. BBM, the service that made it a rich ecosystem its time, is now available on IOS and Android, and all this has done is prove that it indeed belongs inn the past, as despite being available, no one is using it. We’re either on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger or, for a few, Google Hangout.
But even if that wasn’t the case, it kinda came out that BBM not being available in Zimbabwe wasn’t really a government issue. BlackBerry itself just wasn’t too keen!
So why are we still pestering the ministers and regulators for a technology of yesteryear? Maybe part of it is this 6.6% here? Maybe these people should move on like the whole world has.
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11 comments
I think its a case of that “someone” being stuck with an ancient frustration to have BBM in his/her hands.
Think of it as a young man, in 2001, fantasizing about driving his own car and playing “Unleash the dragon – Sisqo”…. then roll on to 2011, he gets his car… and he drives his own car, playing that same song… “Unleash the dragon – Sisqo”… 10 years later!!!!
So this someone at the forum, had bottled up frustrations over BBM being in Zim, so much that when finally given a chance to vent out the question.
tinm@n
MD, Phd Psychology
*so much that when finally given a chance to vent out the question…. it all came out 🙂
“Ulnleash the dragon”, you bring back memories 🙂
zimbabwe has reverted back to the stone age,instead of people walking around with clubs they now carry mobile phones
however, these will soon have to be replaced with the clubs again for hunting food
can you believe it, a monster that murdered his own people and who looted his own land is seen as a hero
can only happen in the stone age
I think the point here is not so much the use of BBM but the use of BLACKBERRY internet service which provides an unlimited data plan at a minimal flat rate.
you still have to pay the providers rate for data – and i’m fairly confident that rate wont be minimal
BBM: The Messenger is already dead.
dead or not give us BBM yacho, Y chose what to use for us.
I believe those who say its dead have never used it. I use it here in SA and as you guessed right, the same functionalities you have on android are there on BlackBerry. Key issue, you also have custom chats using bbm messenger and its lacker. so, Yes BBM must be available in Zim as well.
I think a lot of people are missing the point here, what made blackberry popular is not only BBM but it’s actually the BIS service as a whole and the reason why it worked so well is because they user only has to pay a monthly subscription fee (in South Africa is about R60) and they get access to e-mail, BBM and the Internet (yes that includes WhatsApp etc) for the whole month. There are no additional charges from the network.
It’s true that the BlackBerry is losing marketshare around the world but if you look at South Africa as an example you still have lots of people (mostly students) who are still using BIS not because it is innovative but because it’s cost effective and allows them to plan ahead because they know how much they’re going to pay for their mobile Internet each month.
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