Optus, Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq:PALM) and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced the availability of BlackBerry(R) Connect(TM) for the Palm(R) Treo(TM) 650 smartphone on the Optus network in Australia. BlackBerry Connect enables new and existing Treo 650 users to benefit from many popular features of the “push”-based BlackBerry architecture via BlackBerry Enterprise Server(TM).

With BlackBerry Connect, Optus customers have a greater choice of mobile devices that are supported by the robust and secure capabilities of BlackBerry services and a wider choice of wireless email solutions on the feature-rich Palm Treo 650 smartphone.

Paul Kitchin, marketing director, Optus Business, said, “The Treo 650 has become an important part of Optus’ enterprise mobile data strategy. And now, with the addition of BlackBerry Connect, the Treo 650 will appeal to an even greater number of our corporate customers.”

“The Treo 650 smartphone provides Optus customers with a way to simplify their business and personal lives with the increased mobility offered by an all-in-one device, and with BlackBerry Connect they also have greater flexibility in their choice of enterprise messaging platforms,” said John Hartnett, senior vice president of worldwide sales and customer relations for Palm. “Expanding our geographic reach is one of Palm’s key objectives, and we continue to meet users’ mobile needs with a broad range of world-class, enterprise-strength mobile-computing solutions.”

Norm Lo, vice president for Asia Pacific at RIM, said, “Millions of corporate and government users around the world already rely on the BlackBerry architecture and infrastructure to remain connected to communications and information while on the go. We are now very pleased to be working with Optus and Palm to launch BlackBerry Connect on the Treo 650 and expand the market opportunity for BlackBerry in Australia.”

BlackBerry Connect for the Treo 650 smartphone supports the following features:

— “Push” Corporate Email delivers messages automatically — and
wirelessly — to the Treo 650 smartphone’s VersaMail(R) inbox.
Changes to the inbox, including read/unread status and
deletion, can be automatically synchronized between the user’s
email account and the Treo 650.

— Wireless Calendar Synchronization keeps the Treo 650
smartphone’s built-in Calendar up to date remotely, allowing
users to receive, accept or decline meeting requests on the
go.

— Attachment Viewing lets users view Excel, Word, PowerPoint,
and PDF documents while on the road.(1)

— Remote Address Lookup (RAL) allows users to search their
corporate directory wirelessly for email addresses without the
need to download every name to the Treo 650.

— Enables centralized device management, including support for
IT policies such as over-the-air device disablement and
password device lock, as well as end-to-end security with
Triple DES encryption.

OPTUS is preparing to offer free mobile phones to push customers towards its third generation, or 3G service.

But it said it had yet to find an appropriate handset or price point. The number two telco has so far spent $370 million on its new 3G mobile network, which gives users faster and cheaper services, but is yet to aggressively push its 2G customers towards it.

Earlier this year, almost half a million Hutchison mobile subscribers were offered a new free 3G handset as the provider moved to ditch its 2G network entirely.

Optus chief executive Paul O’Sullivan said the telco would look to offer free handsets before Christmas.

“We are driven by customer behaviours, rather than necessarily by the technology itself,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“We have been making sure we are 3G-enabled, we have put about $370 million into the 3G network and we have about 1100 base stations.

“Whilst we are well enabled on the technology side, we are not yet comfortable that for the mass market of customers our handsets both in terms of price and performance are quite where they need to be to be an economic proposition.”

He said some high-spend Optus customers were being offered free handsets.

“But for the wider mass market we don’t believe there is a handset at a suitable price with a suitable level of performance that we are prepared to push aggressively,” Mr O’Sullivan said.

“We do think that will change between now and Christmas, which is a fairly big volume period in the mobile market.

“So when we think it is right for customers – and when we know if we give customers an incentive to change behaviour the platform will support that move – we will do it.”

According to a recent Citigroup report, rival Telstra has begun aggressively offering new handset subsidies, including free handsets – on a monthly plan – that used to cost up to $699.

Mr O’Sullivan said this would continue to affect competition in the mobile market.

“We have seen Telstra put a fairly significant amount of subsidy on some of its offers in the current quarter and that is undoubtedly driving some competitive momentum,” he said.