CounterPath Expands Mobile Reach with Bria BlackBerry Edition

For those not familiar with it, CounterPath’s Bria app is a softphone that consolidates voice, video and messaging in a single app. However, Bria stands out from more consumer-focused offerings with a SIP and open standards base that elevates it to a carrier-grade application for the desktop, iPhone, Android — and now BlackBerry devices, as well.

"Bria from CounterPath provides a secure cross-platform VoIP solution that suits Enterprise and SMB customers and we're pleased it is launched for BlackBerry 10," said Alec Saunders, vice president of Developer Relations and Ecosystems at BlackBerry.

Announced late last week, Bria BlackBerry Edition is the same SIP-based softphone app found on other platforms, but customized for BlackBerry 10. Curiously, the official announcement only mentions that the app will support “customers on BlackBerry Z10 smartphones,” with no mention of the physical keyboard-toting BlackBerry Q10.

Regardless, with this release, CounterPath is now able to meet the telecommunication needs of around 95 percent of all smartphones, based on Kantar’s most recent Worldpanel ComTech report.

"CounterPath's leadership in softphones is built upon having a broad and deep feature set across multiple devices and operating systems," said Todd Carothers, executive vice president of Marketing and Products at CounterPath. "With the introduction of Bria BlackBerry Edition, we are furthering our commitment to giving organizations and their employees maximum flexibility in the selection of their devices especially as BYOD continues to proliferate. BlackBerry 10 rounds out our coverage for the most demanded devices and operating systems within the Enterprise and SMB channels."

Bria BlackBerry Edition of course features a highly secure, SIP-based softphone that boasts excellent voice quality, as well as offering access to a pre-defined VoIP provider list when adding new accounts. This version of Bria also supports multi-tasking in background operations, allowing users to continue with a call while using other applications.

CounterPath, being among the largest softphone technology providers around, boasts the largest list of interoperability with IP PBXs and SIP-based network infrastructure softswitches. This means that Bria is able to provide a high-quality unified communications experience that meets industry standards on any platform.