BlackBerrys gain favor in wireless inventory

[unhappycamper]

The Air Force has added 15,000 Blackberries in the last 18 months to the 30,000 it already had.


BlackBerrys gain favor in wireless inventory
By Bruce Rolfsen - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday Dec 27, 2009 8:42:31 EST

The Air Force is hungry for BlackBerrys.

In the last 18 months, the service added 15,000 of the wireless mobile devices to the 30,000 it already had. The 45,000 total works out to one BlackBerry for every seven airmen, according to Air Force Times calculations from numbers supplied by the Air Force.

The service has “no accurate number” for all the other models of cell phones it uses, according to Lt. Col. Ann Stefanik, an Air Staff spokeswoman at the Pentagon.

The Air Force’s carriers — which include Verizon, AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile — estimated the number at 100,000 in 2007, according to figures that the companies reported to the Air Force Audit Agency, which was doing a cost analysis.

The Air Force’s annual cell phone bill comes to about $40 million, according to the Audit Agency report obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. The Air Force Office of the Chief Information Officer, which oversees the service’s policies for using and issuing cell phones, declined to comment.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2009/12/airforce_blackberrys_122609/