Quoted - BlackBerry heads to the East Coast

It was a good media day for me yesterday. I was interviewed by Canada's national wire service, Canadian Press, for an article on Research In Motion's decision to open a technical support centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

They made the announcement on Friday, and this was big news in a region that has had more than its fair share of economic hardship.

The National Post is running the story, Research In Motion sets up shop in Nova Scotia; creates 1,200 jobs. Byline is Michael Tutton from CP.

Canadaeast.com is running two versions of the piece: here and here.
The myTelus site has it here.
Yahoo! posted it here.
The Brockville Recorder & Times (even small-town Ontario reads tech) has it here.

Here's my snippet:

Carmi Levy, a research analyst with Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont., said the government money was likely key to the deal, but the major factor was Ontario's tight high-tech labour market.

"Waterloo and Ottawa are talent markets that have been tapped dry by the major technology vendors in Canada and the United States," he said.

"For now RIM has Halifax mostly to itself."

The company said it expects to begin hiring through job fairs beginning in January.

Levy also said the company needed some good news after months of troubles in the U.S. courts in a patent dispute with NTP Inc.

The legal dispute threatens BlackBerry sales in the United States unless there's a settlement or an appeal victory for RIM.

"This is the perfect kind of good news announcement that diverts attention from all of the bad news that's been dogging the company for the past year," said Levy.

Update: The Daily News (in Halifax) is running this piece: High-tech RIM to create 1,250 jobs. Byline is Stephane Massinon. Here's what I said...

Carmi Levy has watched the growth of Research in Motion. The senior research analyst with Info-tech said the jobs coming to HRM will be coveted.

“These are not entry-level jobs at all. This is one of the highest of the high-tech companies right now,” said Levy yesterday.

Levy described the company as a significant force with international clout.

“This a high-flyer in the mobile-wireless sector; they are the acknowledged leader in what’s called push-based e-mail. The term BlackBerry has become synonymous with mobile e-mail.

“For a small, upstart Canadian company, they have become dominant around the world.”

RIM has thrived in Waterloo because of that city’s high level of people with post-secondary education. Levy said Nova Scotia’s reputation for universities was part of the decision to bring an office here.

But not all is well with the company. For years, it has been in an American court facing a patent infringement lawsuit from NTP Inc., a company based in Richmond, Va. The judge hearing the case has said recently that a decision would come soon, possibly any day now.

Levy’s read of the situation is that RIM could end up paying between a half-billion and a billion dollars as a result. “That money isn’t that much of an issue,” said Levy.

“(Paying) would give them the right to continue to use the underlying technology to drive their network and BlackBerry service until 2012, when the patent runs out,” explained Levy.