As a follow up to our previous article about the upcoming BIS 2.6 release, I wanted to elaborate on one of the new features. BIS 2.6 will be bringing a new lower cost BIS solution that carriers can offer. I have dubbed it BIS-Ultralight. 
The @BlackBerry name is just an internal codename and carriers are allowed to rebrand it. RIM is betting that these new customers will get addicted and become lifelong BIS customers. (Got to love how that is their main marketing pitch to carriers)
Currently, carriers offer the following kinds of plans for BlackBerry with some small variations:
- Full BlackBerry service with BES capabilities
- Full BlackBerry service without BES access (AKA BIS only)
- BlackBerry service without Web browsing (Email/IM/BB Messenger… Think T-Mobile)
- Pay as you go BlackBerry (being trialed in some countries)
RIM is hoping to cater to price conscious customers who need VERY basic email capabilities. They want to lower the bar for adoption by new customers. It offers a really simple way to upgrade to full BIS service once users want more.
Features and limitations:
- Users will get a @carrier.blackberry.net/com address where they can send, receive email and forward, copy, BCC, and get read receipts. Auto Signature is available too
- Customers will not be able to view or download or send attachments
- Can accept and send meeting requests
- They also will not get HTML email formatting
- You only get the one @carrier.blackberry.net address and cannot add other addresses
- The new account status cannot tie in with accounts like Windows Live, Yahoo Mail, Gmail and others
- BlackBerry Application Suite and BlackBerry Connect users cannot use this service
- Email size is limited to 32KB
- BlackBerry Messenger and PIN messaging works, but other instant messengers do not
RIM is just telling carriers that once customers try the BlackBerry service, they will become addicted. I guess maybe they have started to notice… Personally, I can see such a plan taking off if it was priced around $5/month. Especially since most carriers already have an email address that lets you get simple email as SMS. Something tells me Verizon will still try to charge $20/month for it.