House members want iPhones as an option to their BlackBerrys, according to a report.
(Credit: Apple)Members of Congress are apparently agitating for iPhones.
TheHill.com is reporting that the U.S. House of Representatives is testing a deployment of iPhones after receiving requests for the devices, according to the Chief Administrative Office.
Congress is a huge BlackBerry shop, but apparently, legislators and staff members are lobbying for the iPhone as another choice in wireless communications.
The catch is, according to TheHill, they'd have to pay for their iPhones out of their Members' Representational Allowance, the fund that each congressperson is given to hire staff members and offset the expenses of running an office. And since all House e-mail is encrypted through a BlackBerry Enterprise Server, iPhone users won't be able to get their e-mail on the devices, unless they connect the iPhone to their computer.
Congress members freaked out at the prospect of losing their BlackBerrys during the patent trial showdown between Research In Motion and NTP, and they made sure that they would be exempt from any shutdown in service, had a judge imposed an injunction on the BlackBerry service.