Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Bold 9900 now available from Telstra

Sydney, Australia, 31 October 2011 – Research in Motion (RIM) and Telstra today announced the BlackBerry Bold™ 9900 is now available on Australia’s largest and fastest national mobile network.

“We’ve received great feedback that consumers and business customers alike are very impressed by the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 and we are excited to offer the device to Telstra customers. The BlackBerry Bold 9900 features some innovative enhancements, entertainment features and apps which combine with trusted BlackBerry security and best-in-class email to create the perfect smartphone for work and play,” said Adele Beachley, Managing Director Australia, RIM.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is built on a new performance-driven platform featuring a 1.2 GHz processor, Liquid Graphics™ touch screen, and support for high speed HSPA+ wide area wireless networks, and can also support up to 720p HD video recording and playback. It features premium materials, a lustrous exterior with a brushed stainless steel frame and a high-gloss glass-weave backplate. It is also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphones yet, at only 10.5mm, and retains the market leading keyboard.

Tim Webber, Director, Telstra Mobile said the original BlackBerry Bold was a favourite among Telstra customers and Telstra expected the next generation Bold to be popular.

“The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 is thinner, faster and more powerful than before and we expect it to be incredibly popular with our customers. The new Bold brings together a full keyboard for fast email composition with a touch screen for easy web browsing. It has everything customers need to get connected with their email, favourite apps, office calendar and the mobile internet on the go. 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,” Mr Webber said.
 
The device supports RIM’s latest operating system, BlackBerry 7 OS, which is designed to power the new performance-driven BlackBerry Bold platform. It provides an easier and faster user experience with improved browsing, voice-activated searches, the ability to manage personal content separately from corporate content, as well as additional personal and productivity apps out of the box.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 comes loaded with BlackBerry Messenger 6 (BBM 6) which provides support for ‘BBM connected’ apps to integrate the popular functionality of the BBM service and offers users the ability to interact with their friends from within the apps themselves. For example, with a BBM connected game app, users can invite their BBM friends to join them in a game and chat with one another in the middle of the game – without ever leaving the game app, all in real time.

Pricing
The BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone is available on a range of consumer Freedom Connect plans including, from 1 November, for $0 upfront on the $99 Freedom Connect Plan for 24 months (min cost over 24 months is $2,376). The plan includes $1,200 worth of calls and MMS plus unlimited text messaging to standard Australian numbers and 2.5GB of data for use in Australia. It also includes a BlackBerry Individual Service (BIS) that provides an unlimited number of BlackBerry emails and unlimited internet browsing in Australia through the BlackBerry browser.

Telstra Business customers can purchase the BlackBerry Bold 9900 on a range of Business Maximiser plans including for $0 upfront on the $129  Business Maximiser Unlimited plan (min cost over 24 months $3,096). This plan includes unlimited calls, SMS, MMS & Messagebank within Australia and includes 3GB of data for use in Australia. Plus, the plan comes with a Blackberry BIS service that provides an unlimited number of BlackBerry emails and unlimited internet browsing in Australia through the BlackBerry browser.

For more information about the BlackBerry Bold 9900, the new BlackBerry 7 OS and BBM 6, visit au.blackberry.com.

For an image of the BlackBerry Bold 9900, please click here.

Media contacts:
Antoinette Trovato, Research In Motion, +61 437 763 316, atrovato@rim.com
Christy Seddon, Spectrum Communications, +61 2 9954 3299, blackberry@spectrumcomms.com.au
Peter Symons, Telstra, 0407 709 654