Why a BlackBerry Shutoff Would Hurt

The legal wrangling between BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) and NTP Inc. is contributing to a growing anxiety that the highly popular BlackBerry service could actually be shut down.

The legal ping-pong will be heating up over the coming month. Reportedly, there will be a hearing late next month on whether there should be an injunction against RIM, which is engaged in a patent dispute with NTP over the wireless distribution of e-mail. More legal maneuvers from each side are expected between now and the hearing. The U.S. Patent and Trade mark Office (USPTO) is also involved and is likely to have an impact on the future of the case.

If the service is halted, it will become a major hassle for many on Wall Street and beyond. Traders and sales traders have become addicted to the devices for direct and indirect trading purposes. But, would this disable more than a few frustrated A-listers? In a word, yes.

This is because wireless technologies are playing increasingly important roles in securities trading. Granted, it is still the cutting edge but there are pioneers who are pointing to some fascinating possibilities. For instance, Sona Mobile, a wireless application developer, is looking ahead to providing a wireless, streaming, real-time market data service to major enterprises (DWT, Dec. 12, 2005). Sona supports many wireless environments beyond BlackBerrys. Along those same lines, Reuters has its Reuters Wireless Delivery System (RWDS) running on Blackberrys (DWT, Oct. 31, 2005). Users of both offerings will not be pleased by a suspension of the BlackBerry service.

Other players may also be affected, such as electronic broker eSpeed, which teamed up with Nextel Com munications and WeComm for a wireless market data and transaction link to the U.S. Treasury bond market via a BlackBerry 7520 handheld device (DWT, June 6, 2005). The service helps licensed bond traders review market data and lets eSpeed's end users, buy-side clients and active traders execute orders to eSpeed's trading network. It's very possible that IT-adept firms like eSpeed will adjust quicklynecessary.

If BlackBerry service is cut off, there may be a silver lining or two for IT staffers. There would be one less e-mail channel to monitor and archive for compliance reasons, and one less networking channel to worry about. However, that would be cold comfort for what would be a nasty interruption of the acceptance of wireless technologies in trading.

Comments? Please send them to eugene.grygo@incisivemedia.com .