Orange and RIM Introduce the New BlackBerry Curve 8520 in Romania

Approachable New Smartphone Offers Email, Messaging, Social Networking, Music and Entertainment for People on the Go

Bucharest, Romania and Waterloo, Canada - Orange and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced the launch of the new BlackBerry® Curve™ 8520 smartphone for customers in Romania. The BlackBerry Curve 8520, a new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series of smartphones, will be available for one week in the Orange online shop only. Following this dedicated web promotion, general availability will commence in all Orange Romania retail outlets.

The slim new BlackBerry Curve 8520 is an approachable smartphone for people who like to be connected"It provides easy mobile access to email, messaging and popular social networking sites (including Facebook® and MySpace) and features a highly tactile full-QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, accurate typing. It also features rich multimedia capabilities and easy access to music, games and other mobile applications for entertainment on the go. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone runs on Orange’s EDGE network and is Wi-Fi®-enabled, providing customers with faster web browsing and extended data coverage.

It introduces an innovative touch-sensitive optical trackpad, which makes scrolling and selection smooth and easy for a great navigation experience. It is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature dedicated media keys, smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, giving customers an easy, convenient way to control their music and videos.

In addition to the standard accessories available with the BlackBerry Curve 8520, Orange is offering a free BlackBerry smartphone skin in a variety of colours for customers purchasing the new smartphone.

“Widespread services like mobile Internet access and email, multimedia and social networking are now easier than ever to access for both professionals and consumers alike thanks to the new approachable BlackBerry Curve 8520, available with a dedicated tariff from Orange starting at only five Euros per month,”said Razvan Sturza, Product Manager, Orange Romania.

“More and more cell phone users are choosing to upgrade to a smartphone and the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will undoubtedly convince many more people in Romania to make the switch. It is a great new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series and delivers all the great messaging, social networking and multimedia features that customers have come to love about BlackBerry smartphones,” said Carlo Chiarello, vice president, product management, RIM.

Key features of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone include:

* Easy-to-use full-QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive optical trackpad for reliable, responsive typing and navigation
* 256MB Flash memory and a 512Mhz next generation processor for enhanced performance
* Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, and Bluetooth® (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
* 2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording
* Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys and a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, plus BlackBerry® Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync music from iTunes® or Windows Media® Player with the smartphone*
* BlackBerry® Internet Service support for access to up to 10 supported email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo!®, Windows Live™ Hotmail®, AOL® and Gmail™; and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server support, which provides advanced security and IT administration features for corporate deployments
* Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting up to 16 GB cards today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available; a 2GB card is included
* Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
* Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

The new BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone from Orange will be available at prices ranging between 99 Euros and 222 Euros (VAT included) depending on the tariff chosen. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 complements the range of BlackBerry smartphones in the Orange portfolio that includes the BlackBerry® Pearl™ 8120, BlackBerry® Bold™, BlackBerry® Curve™ 8900 and BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220 smartphones.
* Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

About Orange Romania
Orange is the market leader in Romania with 10,354,000 customers and is part of the France Telecom group, one of the largest telecommunications companies worldwide with over 186 million customers on five continents.

Orange Romania’s revenues in the first half of this year have exceeded half a billion euro, out of which 267 million euro have been obtained during the second quarter. To get closer to its customers Orange has developed an extensive network currently comprising 104 Orange shops and approximately 1000 partner stores nationwide.

Orange Romania has the widest network coverage and offers outstanding customer service. Orange means the desire to create a better future and to offer as simple and intuitive a communication experience as possible. Orange means more than technology, mobile telephony or GSM networks. It is a brand which was created to facilitate communication between people and to add value to the communities it serves. The France Telecom group has a well-defined corporate social responsibility strategy through which we ensure that we act in a responsible manner. For more information, access www.orange.ro