diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/rbbi.cpp b/icu4c/source/common/rbbi.cpp
index 2615a4b32b5..2f93f6e85ab 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/rbbi.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/rbbi.cpp
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
 ***************************************************************************
-*   Copyright (C) 1999-2010 International Business Machines Corporation
+*   Copyright (C) 1999-2011 International Business Machines Corporation
 *   and others. All rights reserved.
 ***************************************************************************
 */
@@ -86,6 +86,32 @@ RuleBasedBreakIterator::RuleBasedBreakIterator(const RBBIDataHeader* data, enum
     }
 }
 
+
+//
+//  Construct from precompiled binary rules (tables).  This constructor is public API,
+//  taking the rules as a (const uint8_t *) to match the type produced by getBinaryRules().
+//
+RuleBasedBreakIterator::RuleBasedBreakIterator(const uint8_t *compiledRules,
+                       uint32_t       ruleLength,
+                       UErrorCode     &status) {
+    init();
+    if (U_FAILURE(status)) {
+        return;
+    }
+    const RBBIDataHeader *data = (const RBBIDataHeader *)compiledRules;
+    if (data->fLength != ruleLength) {
+        status = U_ILLEGAL_ARGUMENT_ERROR;
+        return;
+    }
+    fData = new RBBIDataWrapper(data, RBBIDataWrapper::kDontAdopt, status); 
+    if (U_FAILURE(status)) {return;}
+    if(fData == 0) {
+        status = U_MEMORY_ALLOCATION_ERROR;
+        return;
+    }
+}    
+
+
 //-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 //
 //   Constructor   from a UDataMemory handle to precompiled break rules
diff --git a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rbbi.h b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rbbi.h
index 90ec6e6bd6a..f93b57766e9 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rbbi.h
+++ b/icu4c/source/common/unicode/rbbi.h
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 /*
 ***************************************************************************
-*   Copyright (C) 1999-2008 International Business Machines Corporation   *
+*   Copyright (C) 1999-2011 International Business Machines Corporation   *
 *   and others. All rights reserved.                                      *
 ***************************************************************************
 
@@ -240,6 +240,36 @@ public:
                              UErrorCode            &status);
 
 
+
+
+    /**
+     * Contruct a RuleBasedBreakIterator from a set of precompiled binary rules.
+     * Binary rules are obtained from RulesBasedBreakIterator::getBinaryRules().
+     * Construction of a break iterator in this way is substantially faster than
+     * constuction from source rules.
+     *
+     * Ownership of the storage containing the compiled rules remains with the
+     * caller of this function.  The compiled rules must not be  modified or 
+     * deleted during the life of the break iterator.
+     *
+     * The compiled rules are not compatible across different major versions of ICU.
+     * The compiled rules are comaptible only between machines with the same
+     * byte ordering (little or big endian) and the same base character set family
+     * (ASCII or EBCDIC).
+     *
+     * @see #getBinaryRules
+     * @param compiledRules A pointer to the compiled break rules to be used.
+     * @param ruleLength The length of the compiled break rules, in bytes.  This
+     *   corresponds to the length value produced by getBinaryRules().
+     * @param status Information on any errors encountered, including invalid
+     *   binary rules.
+     * @draft ICU 4.8
+     */
+    RuleBasedBreakIterator(const uint8_t *compiledRules,
+                           uint32_t       ruleLength,
+                           UErrorCode    &status);
+
+
     /**
      * This constructor uses the udata interface to create a BreakIterator
      * whose internal tables live in a memory-mapped file.  "image" is an
@@ -599,7 +629,7 @@ public:
      * @return   A pointer to the binary (compiled) rule data.  The storage
      *           belongs to the RulesBasedBreakIterator object, not the
      *           caller, and must not be modified or deleted.
-     * @internal
+     * @draft ICU 4.8
      */
     virtual const uint8_t *getBinaryRules(uint32_t &length);
 
diff --git a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
index aa52454bd2c..327b0798548 100644
--- a/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
+++ b/icu4c/source/test/intltest/rbbiapts.cpp
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 /********************************************************************
- * Copyright (c) 1999-2010, International Business Machines
+ * Copyright (c) 1999-2011, International Business Machines
  * Corporation and others. All Rights Reserved.
  ********************************************************************
  *   Date        Name        Description
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@
 #include "rbbidata.h"
 #include "cstring.h"
 #include "ubrkimpl.h"
+#include "unicode/locid.h"
 #include "unicode/ustring.h"
 #include "unicode/utext.h"
 #include "cmemory.h"
@@ -31,8 +32,8 @@
 #define TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status) {if (U_FAILURE(status)) {\
 errln("Failure at file %s, line %d, error = %s", __FILE__, __LINE__, u_errorName(status));}}
 
-#define TEST_ASSERT(expr) {if ((expr)==FALSE) { \
-errln("Test Failure at file %s, line %d", __FILE__, __LINE__);}}
+#define TEST_ASSERT(expr) {if ((expr) == FALSE) { \
+    errln("Test Failure at file %s, line %d: \"%s\" is false.\n", __FILE__, __LINE__, #expr);};}
 
 void RBBIAPITest::TestCloneEquals()
 {
@@ -1090,6 +1091,32 @@ void RBBIAPITest::TestCreateFromRBBIData() {
             errln("create RuleBasedBreakIterator from RBBIData (non-adopted): ICU Error \"%s\"\n", u_errorName(status) );
         }
     }
+
+    // getBinaryRules() and RuleBasedBreakIterator(uint8_t binaryRules, ...)
+    //
+    status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+    RuleBasedBreakIterator *rb = (RuleBasedBreakIterator *)BreakIterator::createWordInstance(Locale::getEnglish(), status);
+    TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
+    uint32_t length;
+    const uint8_t *rules = rb->getBinaryRules(length);
+    RuleBasedBreakIterator *rb2 = new RuleBasedBreakIterator(rules, length, status);
+    TEST_ASSERT_SUCCESS(status);
+    TEST_ASSERT(*rb == *rb2);
+    UnicodeString words = "one two three ";
+    rb2->setText(words);
+    int wordCounter = 0;
+    while (rb2->next() != UBRK_DONE) {
+        wordCounter++;
+    }
+    TEST_ASSERT(wordCounter == 6);
+
+    status = U_ZERO_ERROR;
+    RuleBasedBreakIterator *rb3 = new RuleBasedBreakIterator(rules, length-1, status);
+    TEST_ASSERT(status == U_ILLEGAL_ARGUMENT_ERROR);
+
+    delete rb;
+    delete rb2;
+    delete rb3;
 }
 
 //---------------------------------------------