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Weekly Contest - Australia laments “To 3G or to not 3G?”
Piggybacked onto Australia’s release of of the BlackBerry 8300 was rumor of a 3G BlackBerry, which was promptly snuffed by RIM VP Norm Lo. The initial ZDnet post mentioning the possibility of a 3G BlackBerry was running on the hint of a technical account manager by the name of Chris Ting, and BGR is taking Ting’s word for it. So, we’ve got snitch versus exec, neither of which we can trust with any amount of comfort. RIM’s co-CEO, Jim Balsillie, already told us that we should expect 3G devices out of the company, but he didn’t really give a clear timeline or say where. Obviously, we’d like to see a 3G GSM BlackBerry in North America, but we know that the BlackBerry 8707 made it to Europe… and Australia.
This is our cue for wild speculation. Are we going to see a 3G GSM BlackBerry by the end of the year? If so, what kind of BlackBerry will it be: 8800, 8300, 8100 (!)? Also, who will get it first: our friends in Europe, our friends down under or us crazy Canucks and our Yankee brethren? Post a comment with your thoughts on the 3G issue and you can win 3 games of your choice from Bplay.
LAST WEEK’S WINNER is Collin, who’s putting a the new emerging markets as Africa and the Middle East, which recent reports would certainly agree with. Collin, we’ll be contacting you soon to hook you up with three themes from Bplay. Thanks to everyone else who entered, and we hope to see you again this week!
Related posts:
- Weekly Contest: ‘Why Europe first?’
- RIM exec: BlackBerrys to double in Australia
- Hey America: How’s your Curves? (Updated!)
- ThoughtPiece: BlackBerry and nationalism
- Weekly Contest: The Big G
Posted by BlackBerry Cool in Features, WeeklyContest
Comments [5 Responses]
July 13th, 2007 at 8:09 pm
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..
It is not just the Aussies what a 3G BB device as it sounds cool, it is only option in the remote parts of the country next year.
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!!
I feel sorry for Chris and the other RIM Australia guys, as they are getting emails and questions every day from Telstra customers about the 3G BB.
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’
The 8707 runs on the 3G 2100 MHz networks.
July 16th, 2007 at 12:52 am
Why not? And as a segway - AT&T, get with the program! Why Verizon is faster? Come on 
3G would make everything faster… Unlike any other feature of the blackberry.
July 16th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
I think that a 3G BB will be out by the end of the year but it won’t be in the US because the GSM carriers here seem really slow to be converting over. I think probably the Europe users would see it first and test it out throughly before it is brought here. I’ll bet that a 3G handheld will probably be very similar to the 8300 in specs (especially due to the multimedia features) but could be the start of the 9xxx series of units.
July 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
Telstra representatives recently informed me that RIM have not provided them with a release date for a a HSDPA 850MHz capable BlackBerry. Telstra are expecting one around December, but it would be unlikely to be released to consumers until around March, as Telstra said they would need to test the device prior to release.
That will leave a bit of a gap in coverage for CDMA BlackBerry users when Telstra shuts down the CDMA network end of January.
July 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 am
[...] WEEK’S WINNER is David, for giving us a clear view of Austrlia’s wireless landscape, and why a 3G BlackBerry down [...]
