BlackBerry Service in Brunei, Finally!

[hakeem23]

Finally! People in Brunei can now use blackberry internet service which will be available somewhere end of this year! I've been using the neighboring country's provider for BIS for few months now.. So yeah. Here's the news:

andar Seri Begawan - Cell-Phone users in Brunei may at last be able to use Canadian-made "BlackBerry" by the end of the year, the Canadian High Commissioner disclosed to The Brunei Times yesterday.

In an interview on the sidelines of Canada's 143rd anniversary celebration at Radisson Hotel, Wendell Sanford said, "We have been working hard with the Ministry of Communications and DST on bringing in the BlackBerry," adding a lot of positive activity has taken place.

'The prospects seem very high that Blackberry will be in Brunei by the end of the calendar year," he added.

BlackBerry is a line of mobile e-mail and smartphone devices developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM).

While including typical smartphone applications (address book, calendar, to-do lists, as well as telephone capabilities on newer models), the BlackBerry is primarily known for its ability to send and receive Internet e-mail wherever it can access a mobile network of certain cellular phone carriers.

Touching on trade ties between Brunei ad Canada, the High Commissioner said that they were also "very busy" on that front.

Sanford said a Canadian company doing halal pharmaceutical and nutritional supplements will be out in the Industrial Park sometime this year.

"They are working with the support of BEDB (Brunei Economic Development Board) and we are expecting that to materialise this year," he said.

The other big item the Canadian High Commission has had in recent months is that a consulting arm of British Colombia Hydro, Powertech, has won a contract to do a consultancy for the Brunei government on alternative energy.

"The thing that is particularly good about having Powertech is that British Colombia is what you will call the Green part of Canada. So we think Powertech will be a perfect fit for Brunei," he said.

He added by the end of July, they will have to do a study for Brunei government.

On the education front, Sanford said they were making a lot of progress.

Apart from the recent Canadian education fairs held in the Sultanate, Sanford expressed his delight with the number of Bruneian students who recently took part in a biology competition hosted by University of Toronto.

"The University of Toronto ran a biology competition last year. Through the work of a couple of teachers here in Brunei, more students participated in the competition from any other country in the world, where there were over 300 of them and they did exceptionally well," he said.

Recently, Sanford added, the Ministry of Education's Deputy Director of the Scholarship Department made a tour of most of the Canadian universities.

"So we have been exceptionally busy in the education front, and we really hope it will build the linkages (between the two countries)," he said.

During last year's Canada Day, Sanford told The Brunei Times that the high commission was working closely with the Ministry of Education to further develop opportunities and its existing relationship between the two countries.

He said: "I hope that by the end of the year, Brunei will be able to send 50 students to Canada under their scholarship programme."

Asked whether the goals have been achieved, he said, "We are very close to making that kind of arrangement. All of these things have to have been done and of course the scholarship department from Brunei has only been back in town three or four days, so it will be a couple of months away from making the decision."

Present at yesterdays celebration was Minister of Communications Pehin Orang Kaya Hamzah Pahlawan Dato Seri Setia Hj Abdullah Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Hj Bakar, who was accompanied by his wife Datin Hjh Hasiah.

The celebration kicked-off with the playing of the National Anthems of Brunei and Canada and the highlight of the event was the cutting of the Canada Day cake by the minister and the Canadian high commissioner. -- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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