Cingular strengthens partnership with Good

Good Technology has cemented its first U.S. carrier distribution deal with Cingular Wireless and yet another carrier is exploring the enterprise e-mail frontiers beyond Blackberry.

Cingular today announced it will now offer Good's GoodLink push e-mail and data synchronization solution directly to its business customers along with its Research in Motion messaging portfolio. Unlike the RIM Blackberry service, however, GoodLink's service will run over Palm OS or Windows Mobile devices, making the service available to a potentially far greater field of handsets.

"This marks a turning point in the whole wireless messaging space," said Sue Forbes, vice president of marketing for Good. "The Cingular deal allows us to vastly increase our distribution of GoodLink by providing a much simpler way for customers to purchase it."

While Good works with all of the major carriers to provide the wireless backbone for its direct deals with enterprises, this is the first time a carrier has agreed to distribute the service directly like most carriers do with the RIM platform. Good in the past has secured enterprise customers on its own, licensing its software and servers and providing IT support directly to businesses. The strategy has paid off so far. Good has landed some 6000 separate enterprise deals and GoodLink operates over 80 wireless networks around the world. But the new deal will see Cingular market and sell the messaging technology directly to the carrier's business base.

In recent weeks, several carriers have launched push e-mail and synchronization services. Verizon Wireless announced it is using Intellisync's platform to launch push e-mail in tandem with RIM service, and Nextel is using Visto's java-based platform to extend e-mail to its entire line of data phones.