Small business owners and office managers can now get big-business advantages in a BlackBerry^® solution. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Research in Motion (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) announced today the availability of BlackBerry^® Professional Software for AT&T’s small business customers, which provides a wireless communications and collaboration solution with advanced security features designed specifically for small and midsize companies.

BlackBerry Professional Software is a logical and intuitive wireless communications and collaboration solution that provides small business-focused features, security performance and support options in an easy-to-use solution, supporting up to 30 wireless users. It enables wireless access to e-mail, calendar, contacts, business data and Internet access while helping owners and office managers focus on running their business. This new solution helps them to respond quickly to their customers and provides employees with the ability to accomplish more each day by using their BlackBerry smartphones from AT&T.

“BlackBerry Professional Software will allow our small business customers to more easily afford and implement BlackBerry service so that they have many of the controls and security features and the productivity benefits of staying connected that large business customers enjoy,” said Michael Woodward, AT&T vice president, Business Voice/Data and Wireless Products. AT&T is the world’s largest BlackBerry service provider.

BlackBerry Professional Software provides a simplified installation process and the full suite of advanced security features and IT policies that come with the BlackBerry^® Enterprise Server software, such as sophisticated end-to-end encryption to protect communications and information — but with simplified administration. With pre-defined IT policies, it is also easy to control content protection strength from content on the handset, owner-information settings, password use, password complexity, timeouts and more. A lost or stolen smartphone can be locked down, and proprietary business information can be erased immediately.

BlackBerry Professional Software also provides control over the company’s BlackBerry smartphones, allowing the owner or office manager to limit certain features on an employee’s smartphone, and the solution enables data to be backed up wirelessly. Changes to control settings can occur in seconds as IT policies are “pushed” to the smartphone over the air.