The BlackBerry Bold 9900, available from Telstra on 1 November. Optus has been offering the smartphone since 1 September, 2011.
Telstra has broken Optus’ exclusive hold on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and is set to release the phone from November 1, 2011 on its NextG network.
Telstra Business customers can purchase the Bold 9900 on the $129, 24-month Business Maximiser Unlimited plan. This includes unlimited calls, SMS and 3GB of data for use within Australia. The plan also comes with a BlackBerry Individual Service (BIS) that provides an unlimited number of emails and Internet browsing in Australia through the vendor’s browser.
A consumer Freedom Connect plan is available for $99 on a 24-month contract. The plan includes $1,200 worth of calls, unlimited text messaging to standard Australian numbers and 2.5GB of data for use in Australia.
BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) managing director, Adele Beachley, said in a statement that the company had received favourable feedback from Optus consumers and business customers about the smartphone. In addition, the original Bold model was released on the Telstra network so the company made a decision to make it available from two carriers.
“The Bold 9900 is built on a new platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics touch screen and support for wide area wireless networks,” she said.
Telstra mobile director, Tim Webber, said in a statement that, based on previous sales of the Bold, he expected the 9900 model to be popular with customers.
“Battery life continues to be outstanding and teamed with the Telstra mobile network, customers can access more than twice the geographic coverage of the next largest 3G network in Australia,” he said.
Telstra would not say if the Torch 9860, which is currently only available on the Optus network, would also be released on NextG. Optus had held the exclusive rights to the Bold 9900 since 1 September 2011.
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