Back in 2014, BlackBerry acquired a UK based startup called Movirtu that enabled multiple numbers to be used on a single device. Today they announced plans to bring the service to India by the end of the year.
BlackBerry is in talks with regulatory authorities to seek clearance for making the service available across all operators. The technology enables an individual to have multiple numbers from a single operator on a single device. You can enable up to 9 different numbers from the same operator using a wallet like application. Billing remains separate for voice/data/messaging across SIM cards.
The Virtual SIM platform offers a lot of promise for BYOD scenarios in the corporate environment. It will also be quite useful for the average user trying to maintain a separate number for tasks like e-commerce, social networking, etc. BlackBerry has already deployed the service in about 7 different markets with the primary focus being towards Africa at the moment. The initial outlay requires an investment of about $150,000 by the operator which’ll be recovered via a monthly fee from subscribers to the service. Expect to see the roll out later this year.