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The BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone is coming to AT&T’s network in the “early summer” of 2009 and users who purchase an unlimited data plan from AT&T will be offered unlimited Wi-Fi access within the United States, according to the carrier.
AT&T announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 handset May 4, as Research In Motion also made a number of announcements about its BlackBerry line, including a partnership with Hewlett-Packard and the available of its BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0.
RIM also got a boost May 4 when the NPD Group announced that its research showed BlackBerry smartphones sales outpaced Apple iPhone sales in the first quarter of 2009.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 was originally offered on T-Mobile’s network earlier in 2009. While AT&T said its version of the smartphone will land on its network in the summer, the carrier did not offer a specific date.
AT&T is positioning the BlackBerry Curve 8900 as a handset device for consumers, small business owners and enterprise users. In addition to free Wi-Fi service in the United States when users buy the unlimited data plan, AT&T said the smartphone can make calls in 200 different countries and access data in 170 countries.
In addition, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 supports EDGE (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) data speeds (850/900/1700/1800MHz), along with support for Wi-Fi 802.11 b and g service.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is a thin handset device with a QWERTY keyboard. In addition to the popular keyboard, the device features built-in GPS and a high-resolution (480 by 360) display.
In addition, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone has a 3.2-megapixel camera, a music player and a hot-swappable MicroSD/SDHC memory card slot with a 256MB card. The new Curve 8900 also comes with support for memory cards up to 16GB, and AT&T disclosed that the BlackBerry will later support 32GB memory cards.
AT&T did not announce pricing for the BlackBerry Curve 8900, but the T-Mobile-branded device sells between $500 and $550 at retail stores without a contract or service agreement.