Congress discontinues BlackBerry devices for Senate staffers

OREANDA-NEWS. July 04, 2016. After more than 10 years on the Hill, Senate staffers will no longer receive BlackBerry phones.

The Senate had no choice after BlackBerry decided to discontinue devices running its own BlackBerry 10 software, said a note sent to staffers on Wednesday, according to Politico.

"Once we have exhausted our current in-house stock, new device procurements will be limited, while supplies last, to warranty exchanges only," reads the Sergeant at Arms note.

The Senate has a little more than 600 BlackBerry phones stockpiled, reads the note, and it will continue to support those phones for the "foreseeable future."

The news follows this month's disappointing earnings report from the Canadian phone company, who only sold 500,000 phones in the first fiscal quarter, down from 600,000 in the prior quarter and from 700,000 in the quarter before that.

Blackberry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.