Will the president-elect sing the BlackBerry blues?

Michelle Donegan

November 17, 2008

1 Min Read
Bye Bye BlackBerry for Obama?

11:00 AM -- It looks as if President-elect Barack Obama is going to have a bad case of the BlackBerry blues when he takes office in January because it's unlikely that he will be allowed to use his mobile email device, or any email, at all.

Presidents have not been allowed to use email because of worries about email security and the Presidential Records Act, which makes all of his correspondence part of the official record and potentially open to the public.

Obama could change that. It's not decided yet whether Obama will be the first emailing President or whether he'll have to leave his BlackBerry in Chicago, but The New York Times reports that it's "doubtful" he'll be able to bring it along.

"Pack up all my cares and woe, here I go, singing low, bye bye BlackBerry…"— Michelle Donegan, European Editor, Unstrung

About the Author(s)

Michelle Donegan

Michelle Donegan is an independent technology writer who has covered the communications industry for the last 20 years on both sides of the Pond. Her career began in Chicago in 1993 when Telephony magazine launched an international title, aptly named Global Telephony. Since then, she has upped sticks (as they say) to the UK and has written for various publications including Communications Week International, Total Telecom and, most recently, Light Reading.  

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