AT&T to be first US carrier with BlackBerry Bold

Granted, we haven't heard anything thus far about which carrier would be offering up the recently-made-official BlackBerry Bold, but we can't say we're too shocked to hear that it will indeed be AT&T. In a report highlighting the recent boost in RIM's stock price, it's noted that AT&T will be "the exclusive carrier for the Bold in the US," though we have all ideas the other major US carriers will be following suit shortly, probably with redubbed handsets. We know, you're hungry for a price to mull over, but sadly, it's not meal time just yet.

[TheGeektoriousBIG @ May 12th 2008 1:24PM]

EV-DO was part of the specs. What happened to VZW getting it?

[D @ May 12th 2008 2:12PM]

I want it on Verizon too, but if history is any indication, Verizon will get it about 6 months after Sprint gets it...

[rock99rock @ May 12th 2008 3:23PM]

Just in case you didnt know, Verizon sucks. All carriers suck, but Verizon more-so. Im not hating, this is a justified comment.

[Al @ May 12th 2008 3:42PM]

I would say VZW gets phones latter than Sprint and that is true for the most part. The only exception is BB phones, which they either get around the same time or earlier. The Curve got release on both carriers around the same time. the 8800 world phone got release on VZW first, and so did the CDMA Perl.

[Nabil @ May 12th 2008 3:58PM]

VW needs to get with the program and switch to GSM...otherwise their phones will continue to suck

[michas_pi @ May 12th 2008 4:43PM]

The phone comes in two versions: HSDPA and EV-DO.

AT&T got the HSDPA version and Verizon will get the EV-DO version.

[yacoub @ May 12th 2008 1:26PM]

lol AT&T. Crappy service in most places, authoritarian exclusive contacts (ala iPhone). Eff that.

[Frank Furter @ May 12th 2008 2:01PM]

Yeah. Having cool phones sucks.

[Flashpoint @ May 12th 2008 2:10PM]

Because my business pays entirely for my service - on my Cingular SIM card -

buying an iphone on EBAY for $318 and jailbreaking it for FREE made all the sense in the world.

Mind you, unlike some phones with no access to EDGE, I am getting FULL Internet, Itunes, Maps, Chat and Mail functionality on mine.

[brad @ May 12th 2008 2:25PM]

@Flashpoint

hows Flash working out for you? Dont forget to buy an extra battery too incase yours dies on a busines...oh wait

[Jason @ May 12th 2008 4:14PM]

@ Brad, do people seriously carry spare cell phone batteries? Maybe I just don't use my phone as much as other people, but I've never run the batteries of any of my phones down in the course of a single day, nor have I had to replace a battery before I replaced the phone itself, and I tend to keep my phones a while (2.5-3+ years) before getting a new one.

And assuming you were going to say business trip... what kind of business trip would you be on where you're not going to be near either an electrical outlet or a computer/laptop for really long periods of time where you're going to use your phone? The cord by itself is USB, and it comes with a 110V wall adapter, and you can buy a 12V/USB adapter too, so where's the charging problem? I had all of those for my RAZR, and it had a replaceable battery...

Hate to see what you think of laptops considering their relatively miniscule battery time... do you carry spare laptop batteries too??

[happy_penguin @ May 12th 2008 5:00PM]

I used to carry a spare cell phone battery back when all I had was analhog and I couldn't talk more than a couple of hours or standby for more than a day.

[Dave @ May 12th 2008 5:16PM]

@Jason

actually many business travelers do carry a spare laptop battery, and in your question about long periods of time, try sitting in the airport for a 6 hr flight delay and every 16 year old with a laptop is already plugged into the 2-3 outlets near your gate.

[Hung @ May 12th 2008 5:35PM]

@ happy_penguin

"analhog"

wat.

[Etrigan @ May 12th 2008 6:05PM]

You might want to carry a second phone for your appointments, unless you want to be a day early every time......look at the date on the screen. Or is that a day late......

[Bryant @ May 12th 2008 10:54PM]

@ Jason:

If you're doing anything mission critical for a business, you'd be insane not to carry a spare battery. I always have a spare laptop and blackberry battery handy on conference visits.

[Jamus @ May 12th 2008 1:27PM]

Hmmm, something tells me that ATT is going to be needing that exclusivity pretty soon...

[socritic @ May 12th 2008 1:27PM]

Great RIM, you've helped me make the decision between the Bold and the 3G IPhone. When will they learn??? AT&T sucks and will NOT get my business. on second, thought, maybe a hacked Bold will do. also, what a stupid name for a handset. Long live open handsets!

[Jack Storm @ May 12th 2008 3:20PM]

How did RIM going exclusively at&t with the bold help your decision when Apple did the exact same thing with the iphone?

[clearThumbtack @ May 12th 2008 1:30PM]

what a waste of possible screen space with all of those useless tactile keys...

:D

[roole @ May 12th 2008 4:58PM]

I was thinking the same thing.... how retro....

[Ryan @ May 12th 2008 1:31PM]

"though we have all ideas the other major US carriers will be following suit shortly"

what the hell is up with engadget these past few days?? is the proofreader on vacation or something because it seems like almost every post has a typo / error in it lately..

[gad get @ May 13th 2008 12:43AM]

Where's this error?

[James Cameron @ May 12th 2008 1:32PM]

Enough with this calculator phone. Where's the Blackberry iPhone killer that they've been talking about?

[Steffen Jobbs @ May 12th 2008 3:03PM]

There isn't any such animal as an iPhone killer from BlackBerry or anyone else (and they have the best shot). They're considered iPhone pretenders or substitutes. That's not meant to be a degrading comment. All those smartphones will do is steal market share from each other. That alone will not stop the iPhone onslaught toward world domination.

[Justin @ May 12th 2008 4:25PM]

Here it is.....

http://discovermotorsports.com/images/Blackberry-iPhone.jpg

[rv @ May 12th 2008 5:22PM]

Im waiting for android.

[iNOMAD @ May 12th 2008 1:32PM]

I look forward to buying this. I just wish I wouldnt have to have a big carrier logo on the phone, especially when I pay full price for phones.

[HARRYZWD @ May 12th 2008 1:42PM]

wow, seems people never stop having bad things to say. are people really still under the impression that at&t has bad service/coverage? i have a phone for work which is at&t and mt personal phone is with verizon. i really cant say one works better or worse than the other. (NY metro area coverage) and after reading the specs on this phone....and its a phone, remember that....i'm impressed. as long as this device doesn't suffer from lock ups or drain a fully charged battery in a day, it looks like RIM has done a great job.

[brad @ May 12th 2008 2:36PM]

Try driving around Los Angeles on AT&T....you won't last 5-10 mins before the call fails.

Unfortunately, they don't seem to be building out coverage in the second biggest market in the USA with whatever profits they are reaping from the iPhone and soon the Bold. I don't blame them though, people stick with them as long as they have these exclusives.

[Taylor @ May 12th 2008 2:35PM]

I'm in the Silicon Valley, CA area (santa clara specifically), and i switched from verizon of 8 years to ATT in november because i was sick of the poor phone selection. I get dropped calls all the time, in densely populated areas with no hills or tall buildings in the way, even on the freeway. They used to say they were the network with the fewest dropped calls, but i NEVER had them with Verizon! I also noticed that 3G coverage sucks compared to VZW. I pretty much ALWAYS had EVDO coverage if i had any coverage at all (only times it was spotty was sometimes camping way out in the middle of nowhere, where my ATT friends had similar spotty coverage). With ATT, i mostly have EDGE, with HSPA connections in plenty of areas, but certainly not all. And over in neighboring Santa Cruz by the beach, VZW always had EVDO but my ATT tilt had never seen HSPA there.

Networks are better in some places than others, but where i live, VZW's network is better by a lot. If only their phones didn't suck...
-Taylor

[TxdoHawk @ May 12th 2008 3:15PM]

The question is, how much better is the web browser...and how long until we actually see it on Verizon? Good answers to both of these could have a major impact on my next cell phone purchase..right now I am looking to jump ship to AT&T for an iPhone once my contract is up.

[prateeko @ May 12th 2008 1:46PM]

DO WANT!

As much as I hate at&t at times, I am happy with the exclusives they're bringing down, but choosing between this and the 3G iPhone may be a touch choice...

[JJV @ May 12th 2008 2:54PM]

well if youre going for a touch choice. then obviously its the iphone. Get it? touch iphone? hahaha......





*Goes to corner and thinks about what hes done*

[Willis @ May 12th 2008 1:47PM]

MUST......HAVE........NOW!!!

[ck @ May 12th 2008 4:57PM]

That design looks awesome! Glossy black with cool rounded edges trimmed with chrome. Nice little oval speaker. I hope it has a brushed aluminum back!

Jeez...why don't they just call it the iBold.

[Andrew @ May 12th 2008 1:54PM]

I don't live in the states so I can't really judge, but are some carriers in the States really that bad? I just think it all has to do with where you reside. For example, AT&T might work well in one region but might suck in another reason where as Verizon might provide good coverage where AT&T has poor coverage etc. Also, does it matter who gets exclusive rights to a phone? Whoever wants one is just going to get one and unlock it anyway, so I find it pointless to argue and cry about so and so getting the rights even if their coverage sucks.

[Chris @ May 12th 2008 2:10PM]

The unlocking method only applies to AT&T and T-Mobile. Other carriers are CDMA and therefore do not require ([or] are lacking, depending on your viewpoint) SIM cards. Also, in America we like to bitch a lot. Nothing really gets done, but it's just the way things work. We bitch, nothing gets done, go back to work. It's a vicious cycle but it's the American way.

T-Mobile>*...(soon)

[majortom @ May 12th 2008 1:55PM]

At the risk of sounding like an AT&T employee, I am starting to really like them. I bought an iphone about 6 months ago. I had no service in my house. Had to go outside and up the hill to get service. Then one day two months ago, while sitting inside the house, my phone rang. I noticed that I had full bars. I walked around the house and had coverage. My sons phone, which had the same issue, also started working. Either AT&T put up a new tower for my area or they struck a deal with someone to use theirs. Either way, I am quite happy now with their service.

[electron @ May 12th 2008 1:56PM]

man, I love that new OS...

[Chad @ May 12th 2008 1:57PM]

When did Engadget become a Digg hangout? The comments keep getting more and more juvenile. This phone is a huge leap for RIM and looks to be a great device. I've been using my 8800 since they were released last year and it just works. The main headache is with html and the 9000 addresses that and adds many other things that are on my wish list. I got an ipod touch to get an idea what the iphone was like and I admit I was more impressed than I expected to be but after a few weeks using it I found the 8800 did almost all of the things the iphone did without having to jailbreak it. Now I just have to figure out how to get my boss to pony up for one.

[portseven @ May 12th 2008 2:00PM]

Starting to look like a quality competitor to the 3G iPhone for us business types, at least. Release date is more important to me than price! When can we get our hands on this bad boy?!

[DanH @ May 12th 2008 2:00PM]

I am so going to unlock this for t-mobile. I don't care if it has 3g or not.

[dfn_doe @ May 12th 2008 5:14PM]

The specs for this phone include hsdpa flavours for both AT&T and T-Mob's networks. I expect 3g support on both networks without any hackage. Tmo's coverage is going to be ass for at least another year though unless you happen to live in their existing small footprint in NY.

[Shane @ May 12th 2008 2:02PM]

Andrew, Verizon has significantly better coverage in the US than AT&T, especially if you live or travel outside of a major city. Even within midtown Atlanta, my VZW phone gets a signal deep inside my building whereas AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint phones require you to basically stand next to a window to get a signal.

As far as unlocking phones go, that is only useful if you use AT&T or T-Mobile (both sucky options). VZW uses CDMA technology which doesn't use a SIM chip so there is no benefit to unlocking a phone. You couldn't use it on VZW's network anyway.

[Andrew @ May 12th 2008 2:12PM]

Sorry didn't make it clear, I mean yeah, for CDMA users like myself, we can't do anything because we NEED to get it from our carrier, but people who are already part of a GSM network you can just go to wherever and purchase one to unlock so why complain? I would understand if it was like an iPhone where you would have to through a much tougher process to unlock, but it's a BlackBerry and people have been unlocking/buying from an outside source for quite a while now

[Andrew @ May 12th 2008 2:59PM]

I think it's going a little too far to generalize and say that Verizon has "significantly better coverage" in the country than AT&T. I've been on AT&T for many years and have yet to experience the poor network coverage that people on here rag about constantly, though clearly regional differences affect all carriers.

I also live in Atlanta, but I spend a great deal of time in the Research Triangle area in North Carolina. While I haven't seen any substantial difference with friends and colleagues who use Verizon in Atlanta, I have experienced many instances up in RTP where AT&T signal is the strongest and people around me (on Verizon and Sprint) have had calls disconnected.

I use AT&T because of their wide network coverage and openness of GSM phones, but I am no ardent supporter of one carrier versus another. It seems to me that some people simply like to trash talk AT&T (for reasons still unknown to me), though I have been in many places across the country and have not had them fail me yet; I've also seen a significant improvement in their network through my travels over the years. I don't know what people have against AT&T (or Verizon and any other carrier, for that matter), but some of these comments are just completely irrational and scream of fanboyism. Just choose the carrier that works for you!

[sonicwind @ May 12th 2008 2:05PM]

Bold rhymes with old, but not tired. But BlackBerry's are both.

[PS3guy @ May 12th 2008 2:06PM]

No touch screen no buy.

[roole @ May 12th 2008 5:05PM]

Yeah. And, such postage-stamp-sized screen no buy.