T-Mobile's BlackBerry Pearl 8120 looks ripe for April 14

Oh, T-Mobile. If only you'd kept to the original rumored date we'd heard of February 18 to release your BlackBerry Pearl 8120, you'd have been able to beat your arch nemesis AT&T out of the gate. Anyway, we suppose late is definitely better than never in this case -- and when you consider that you'll be tacking on support for your HotSpot@Home WiFi calling service, it's still a solid win for your lineup. Let's hope you can stick to the date!

[Thanks, Mumbo]

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 18th 2008 2:56PM]

high speed internet? is this an AWS 3g phone for them?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 18th 2008 3:10PM]

Looks like it's just EDGE data. Some of my internal contacts say they haven't heard anything about a possible firmware upgrade to UMTS so it's unlikely we'll see anything like that. Sucks, though, cuz I would have liked a high speed berry on T-Mobile's network.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 18th 2008 3:25PM]

Does anyone have an idea of how much this would cost?

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 18th 2008 4:29PM]

I'd wager $199-249 on contract and $449-499 off, just going off the BB Curve w/wifi pricing on T-mobile.

Still a bummer about the 3g though, I mean the Nokias and Samsung's they've come up with w/3g have all been rather ugly and lack qwerty keyboards.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 19th 2008 7:14AM]

The first 3G BlackBerry will not be some crapass Pearl 8120 and will surely not bet given first dibs to T-Mobile, the slowest data network of any major carrier.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 19th 2008 7:35AM]

The first 3G blackberry.......wait a second, there are 3 in circulation already! 8830 has EV-DO as does 8130. The 8703e also has EV-DO along with the 8707g that has UMTS. Oops, that's 4 already. Also, T-Mobiles data network is slow......same as any other Edge network. Get the chip off your shoulder!

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 19th 2008 8:29PM]

Maybe slowest because the down have 3G yet? Besides, most people I know use TMO for the voice quality rather than data. I'd watch what you say, because if the rumors are true, TMO might be getting some serious phones... If the N81 (or even the N95 8GB) came out on T-Mobile's lineup, I would jump on that! Plus, the (ugly) ROKR E8 is speculated to release on T-Mobile, for anyone who cares.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 19th 2008 10:12AM]

Too bad EV-DO is more like 2.5G. If anything, at least mention EV-DO Rev. 0 and EV-DO Rev. A. Alltel is straight EV-DO, so you basically just said Alltel is 3G. Way to go, genius. Want to experience real 3G+...go to Europe and Asia. USA? Haha...

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 19th 2008 8:29PM]

Actually by traditional standards, you are wrong. Even HSDPA in Europe is not as fast as the initial specs indicated - not to mention consumers are complaining about how flaky it is in some areas (and how it is not fully backwards compatible with UMTS).

Yes, Europe's GSM networks are stronger, and they might report some fast speeds in the urban areas. But for now (in the U.S.), you can complain up and down about the data networks, but EV-DO in any revision is more 3G than any of the data networks. I lived in Frankfurt for nine years and enjoyed T-Mobile (Europe)'s 3G (mostly around 2.2 to 3 MB/s). But when I moved to the US last year, I got Verizon and I'm reaching just as high if not higher speeds when browsing with EV-DO (4.5 MB/s where I work)! Oh yeah, and AT&T's HSDPA is a joke. I mean it! There is tiny coverage and it's only in the most urban of areas. Speed? Hah, I won't even go into the speed issues I had with the HSDPA here.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 21st 2008 3:52AM]

I'm wondering where the author of this article got the screen shot... looks familiar, like it came from T-Mo's internal database... And by the by, if the government would get off of the 1700mhz bandwidth that T-Mo bought at the beginning of 2006, there would be true 3G GSM coverage in the US, but, leave it to the FCC and the Dept of Homeland Security to go and bugger things, like they do.

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 27th 2008 2:32AM]

Well, some news for you peeps...I know something about Tmobile..won't tell you how but, lets just say i'm connected. :) This blackberry 8120 is in fact due the end of april. its a HOT phone to say the least. I have the 8100 pearl and am getting the 8120 asap. UMTS will not be supported. but, hotspot@home is amazing and so cheap for what you get!! The competition cannot touch Tmobile with this service. UMTS is slow rolling out and will take much longer than anticipated. Goverment needs to clear out Tmobiles spectrum from the auction a few years back. ITs slow going to say the least. UMTS is lightning fast tho. Its Generation 4 Cell networking. Verizon and the like do the 3G but, when Tmobile comes out with UMTS, it will be the only 4g network...its going to blow the competition out of the water. Expect great things in 2009 (anticipated UMTS rollout)

Enjoy those Tmobile Cells everyone ... :D

[(Unverified) Posted Mar 29th 2008 3:25PM]

WHY WON'T T-MOBILE RELEASE A TRIPLE THREAT: HOTSPOT@HOME, TOUCHSCREEN, GPS??!!?!?!?