3G BlackBerry in development
For Australians, that is. This bittersweet news comes out of the land down under, where lucky Telstra customers appear poised to become the first GSM subscribers with access to a 3G-equipped BlackBerry device. Chris Ting, a RIM technical account manager, revealed that the company is readying a 3G capable device for use on the country’s Telstra network. The device may also include GPS and Wi-Fi, but given the early stage of the development process, the specs have yet to be nailed down. It’s also unclear exactly which form factor this new "super-Berry" will take on. 83xx, 88xx, or could this be the early stages of the 9xxx series? Please don’t tempt us any further. What is clear, however is that the new Berry will likely operate on Telstra’s HSDPA network, giving users 3.6 mbps download speeds, and a sound reason to feel a sense of entitlement and superiority over the rest of the world.
On Jul 13, 2007 @ 10:42 am, Simon Said:
Don’t Lo’s comments stomp that rumor dead? Don’t get me wrong, a 3G BlackBerry would be awesome, but why would it come to Australia first? I’m more inclined to take the VP’s words at face value.
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 11:10 am, PC Said:
North America always lags Europe and the rest of the world with new wireless technology - It took NA till almost 1998 to accept the fact that GSM was a viable platform.
With 3G being last years news everywhere except NA, I expect some handset manufacturers like RIM may question if there is a viable opportunity window before 4G WiMax is demanded by the public.
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 11:43 am, victor Said:
What a waste, I can’t believe I won’t get to see it until then. Maybe I should write a plea of mercy to BB. I figure it has to be the 9xxx series since it is mostlikely that one unless its like they did for the 8700 series and released an asian 3G BB.
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 1:22 pm, John Said:
3G on a blackberry is stupid.
I have a TyTN and with data always on the 3G networks, the battery can’t make it through two days.
The legendary status of great battery times for BB’s would disappear.
I have yet to see a 3G device perform well on battery power (While it is always connected using a 3G data connection) we need to wait until they improve the radios and get the power consumption down. That’s why iPhones are only 2.5 G
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 1:41 pm, raimer Said:
My Nokia E90 Communicator has a brilliant battery life with HSDPA 3,5G always on (on Movistar Spain).
And it features awesome high speed “real website” browsing, a REALLY good qwerty keyboard and full software suite, so I installed the Blackberry Connect software on it and dumped my 8800.
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 7:21 pm, Azkanaz Said:
Cool news, but that Telstra logo is almost 12 months old!
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 7:54 pm, Jeff B. Said:
Sweet.
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On Jul 13, 2007 @ 8:46 pm, Oz Said:
Aussies have known for ages RIM is working on a 3G BB, as every large company in Australia is asking the same question: The CDMA network is closing in Feb 2008, so were are the 3G BB Devices for our remote workers?
Australia is the first country to fully deploy 3G 850Mhz (some call it 3.5G) and close it’s CDMA Network.
In April Telstra was the only carrier requesting a 3G 850Mhz BB from RIM. Telstra is just small fish, compared to Cingular, who are only 40% complete on their 3G network, so they are not pushing for a 3G model yet..
RIM wants to create a 3G 850Mhz BB with great battery life, just like their current models, so that is the challenge their designers are working on at the moment.
It is just not RIM who are behind, as Nokia will be only start providing 3G 850Mhz phones hopefully later this month. The current mobile device options are crap for 3G 850Mhz!!
The term ‘3G’ is confusing, as there is also 3G 2100 MHz networks around the world, so that is why Telstra called their new network ‘Next G’
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On Jul 14, 2007 @ 11:36 pm, James Said:
Well Telstra does have the worlds fastest mobile network and also Australia’s largest mobile network so it only makes sense that it becomes one of the first to receive 850Mhz 3G compatible devices first.
For example even though the Hiptop3 was only released in April I would recommend all Hiptop fans to keep their ears open as the new Hiptop might be coming to Australia sooner than anyone would think.
But it is very exciting to be hearing that the Blackberry will soon have a 3G version which will make customers very happy. Will be interesting what happens to the BIS & BES pricing models though and how they change going from being only EDGE to (hopefully) Next-G network speeds.
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On Jul 16, 2007 @ 2:57 am, Whoever Said:
Hey Oz, when you were referring to Nokia not releasing 3.5G handsets until the end of the month I hope you were just referring to Telstra branded handsets. I have had my N95 since the end of April and it has worked fine NextG. In terms of BB, who needs it when you can get Emoze for free on any phone and not be tied to the pathetic BB OS. But yet I think after going to CeBIT in Sydney earlier this year I will pick up a PocketSurfer 2 as there was nothing that could match its speed.
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On Jul 16, 2007 @ 7:59 pm, James Said:
Whoever mate, the Nokia N95 would be using Telstra’s old 3G network (same network as the Three 3G network) as it can not detect the 850Mhz Next-G network.
You will be finding quite a few Nokia’s coming first to Telstra over the next few months starting with the first one… very very soon.
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On Jul 18, 2007 @ 12:33 am, Wireless Geek Said:
Why wait for the Australian version to be the first GSM 3G BlackBerry user? Why not order it today from RIM or NTT DoCoMo?
http://na.blackberry.com/eng/devices/device-detail.jsp?navId=H0,C63,P183#tab_tab_purchase
Sorry Ausies, the 8707 has been out for quite a while. The 88XX, or 9XXX series will rock, but it won’t be RIM’s first GSM 3G device.
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On Jul 18, 2007 @ 7:53 pm, Whoever Said:
James, I don’t where you get you information but you might just want to get your hands on a N95 a try it for yourself. I still see no advantage in going with Australia’s great white elephant when Optus and Vodafone are both doing a rolling HSDPA upgrade of their networks.
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On Aug 19, 2007 @ 6:46 pm, phlo Said:
Just for the record:
The 8707 has been out in several european countries for quite a few months now. It looks rather nice (imo a lot nicer than the 8700s) and the battery life ranges from acceptable (3G/2G) to very good (2G).
It’s main drawback is, however, the slow-as-hell cpu. Instead of a 312 MHz XScale it apparently uses some weird Qualcomm
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On Aug 21, 2007 @ 9:31 am, OzMark Said:
The 8707 has been out in Australia and Europe for almost 12mths. Mine is already quite scratched! Came out initally on Voda in a 8707v flavour, then Telstra and Optus in 8707g
It is a GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900 UMTS 2100 phone ie 3G 2100Mhz.
Despite the posts above, I haven’t found the interface too slow, Magmic Poker takes a bit longer than on the 8700 but emails are much quicker.
Shame about the latency on webpages however as the page is grabbed and recoded — although still waybetter than GPRS/EDGE browsing
I think the OP is referring to a BB device that will run on Telstra’s NextG network, which is a UMTS HSPDA 850Mhz network.
Interestingly Telstra is trying to get dual 850/2100 UMTS devices so they can roam both Aus country, city and 3G overseas as well as fallback to GSM/GPRS on 900/1800
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