BlackBerry 8820 gets real for AT&T, $299 starting tomorrow

Sorry, 8800 owners -- your pieces are officially obsolete (not really, unless WiFi is a big deal for you). AT&T has gotten officially official today with the 802.11a/b/g-equipped 8820 at the expected $299 contract price point, offering integrated GPS, push-to-talk support, EDGE data, a microSD slot, and a clean, camera-less posterior just like the original. Grab it online and in store starting tomorrow. Oh, and buyers, let us know what the sitch is with the GPS, okay?

Update: AT&T's sale page for the device is now online here.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2007 11:09AM]

the iPhone didn't make EDGE+WIFI an okay alternative to HSDPA. Nice to see GPS though.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2007 11:24AM]

Is the WiFi going to work without the data plan? I remember rumors of att crippling the wifi like that.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2007 1:06PM]

My company-provided Sprint 8830 is fantastic. I'd love to have this for my personal use, but until they provide HSDPA it won't happen. In fact, if Sprint offered dual-NAM capabilities I would have already canceled my Cingular contract.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 19th 2007 2:07PM]

http://www.blackberry8800series.com/function/features/wifi.jsp

If you go there you can see that it says:

Data Support

If you have signed up for a qualifying BlackBerry� data plan� through your service provider, you can also use your BlackBerry� 8820 smartphone to access your BlackBerry data services over virtually any Wi-Fi network.

So that kinda sucka, they are locking down the WiFi.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 20th 2007 11:35PM]

I confirmed with AT&T that they did shut off the GPS capability of Blackberry maps, you need to subscribe to Telenav for GPS. They also stated that you have to pay to use the 802.11 with one of their data plans. i could put up with the data plan, but not the requirement to pay for telenav when the phone was designed to provide it for free.

[(Unverified) Posted Sep 21st 2007 2:28PM]

So wait..if you buy the phone through AT&T they cripple the features and charge you what amounts to an extra $1700 (roughly) in service charges to use the features they've crippled. But what if you buy an unlocked, subsidy free version of the phone, and then just drop in your existing simcard? Or is the crippling effect done through the network?