Windows Live Messenger and BIS Hotmail push mail on BlackBerry

From BerryReview.com:

RIM and Microsoft have tied together to bring tighter integration between Hotmail/Messenger and the BlackBerry. Just look at the promised features in the press release.

This is an awesome announcement – up until now, Bell in Canada and T-Mobile in the States have been the only carriers to offer MSN Messenger to their subscribers. Part of my work at RIM involved instant messaging provisioning and testing the Windows Live Messenger component in preproduction, so it’s awesome to hear that the service will be coming out on a wider scale. I expect it’ll be similar to Facebook’s deployment and this is a huge marketing chip for carriers like Rogers and Telus.

(I know a lot of people on Telus from HowardForums have tried to get the MSN Messenger client working, and you can’t do it without getting a Connection Error 65 – RIM has to enable your SIM or device for it. It’s not just a service book issue.)

Congrats to the teams at RIM and Microsoft on getting a deal worked out – MSN/Windows Live Messenger is definitely one of the most popular services here in Canada.

Additionally, this announcement will take Hotmail/Windows Live Mail from a second-class citizen (you had to pay for Hotmail Plus to access it on your device, ordinarily) to a top-tier mail account with push access. In effect, when using BIS, you’ll get the message on your device as soon as it lands in your inbox, and not from 2-15 minutes afterwards. Other providers with push email on the BlackBerry are Yahoo Mail and Gmail, and some GoDaddy hosted accounts.

With the release of the 9000Bold and this news, things are looking good for the future with BlackBerry devices.

January 16/09: This post has been modified to avoid giving the impression that I’m an appropriate contact for support. Please contact your carrier or BlackBerry technical support for the correct method of reporting issues.