BlackBerry Signs Payments Tech Deal with EnStream in Canada

BlackBerry has suffered its share of lumps in the payment market, but it has scored an apparent victory in a partnership deal with Canadian mobile payment venture EnStream, which is owned by Bell, Rogers and Telus.

Enstream will use BlackBerry's infrastructure to enable mobile operators and banks such as RBC, TD, CIBC and Desjardins to securely provision payment card credentials into Near Field Communication-equipped smartphones.

“EnStream, with BlackBerry, is already serving a number of banks and mobile operators, and is becoming a hub for payment credential delivery to smartphones in Canada,” says Almis Ledas, chief operating officer of Enstream, in a June 13 press release. “We expect most major Canadian banks and mobile operators to connect through this platform to meet consumer demand for efficient and safe digital transactions.”

The EnStream deal is part of BlackBerry's strategy to extend its core enterprise mobility technology to new industries.

BlackBerry enjoyed some early success in mobile payments, but has struggled of late. LevelUp and PayPal once supported BlackBerry for mobile payments, but no longer do. BlackBerry has also faced criticism from bank executives.

But now, the company expresses confidence in its role in the future of mobile payments.

“BlackBerry has proven through our decades of experience in enterprise mobility that we have the ideal infrastructure and security capabilities to protect users’ data when new capabilities such as mobile payments emerge,” says John Sims, president of Global Enterprise Services for BlackBerry, in the press release. “Together with Enstream and partners like them around the world, BlackBerry can better reach customers and provide a complete solution for banks with opportunities in the mobile payments space.”