The wait is over.  Yesterday the BlackBerry Bold 9900 finally took off for AT&T, the one carrier which was so needy for the device while every other carrier around had it already.  Verizon and Sprint offer the Bold 9900 running over the 3G network, while T-Mobile offers it in their “4G” standard.  The AT&T Bold 9900 gets H+ (HSPA+), which is AT&T’s next step after 3G- employees at the stores like to call it 3.5G.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 is $199 to purchase from AT&T with no rebates necessary.  Along with that comes a two year plan of course.  Otherwise you’ll have to dish out $549.99 if you don’t want to extend your contract.

AT&T BlackBerry Bold 9900 >>

It’s a dream come true for many seeing AT&T announced the BlackBerry Bold 9900 with a launch date at last.  Furthermore, it’s a bigger tease to see the device in the flesh only a couple days before launch date.  The folks over at CrackBerry received an image of an AT&T branded Bold 9900 with its retail packaging next to it.

For those who missed the announcement, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 will be offered at all AT&T stores on November 6th for $199.99 on a 2-year contract.

AT&T unveiled its 4G BlackBerry line today at last.  For a few months now we’ve had the BlackBerry Torch 9810, but users have been waiting for the Bold 9900 as every other carrier has had it all along from day one.  Today we get to see launch dates for three devices: the Bold 9900, Curve 9360, and Torch 9860.

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Torch 9860 are set to launch on November 6th together.  The Curve 9360 is set for November 20th to launch.  For business and government customers, the date is set at November 14th.  As far as pricing goes, the Bold 9900 gets a $199.99 price tag, Torch 9860 at $99.99, and Curve 9360 at $29.99.  All these prices are based on a 2 year contract rate.

That’s not a good sign.  It looks like AT&T has removed its tweet which stated that the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is coming soon.  When the tweet took off, we got a tip from a AT&T/BlackBerry rep that the Bold would be launching as soon as next week.  Now with the tweet removed we have our doubts.  I’m just hoping we don’t have a delay like the Bold 9000 did.

Source: CrackBerry

I was at the AT&T store over the weekend and managed to chat a bit with a BlackBerry representative in the store handing out marketing promos and such for the brand.  We discussed PlayBook quite a bit and features we’re dying to see surface (native PIM apps, etc.).  I mentioned the BlackBerry Bold 9900, and he said they’re getting ready to launch it on AT&T "next week" with no exact date mentioned.  So there really is no solid here other than a BlackBerry rep saying it is coming up.  We already know AT&T announced it was coming soon on Twitter over the weekend which led me to believe this guy was being a bit accurate and wasn’t far from reality.  I must say I’m looking forward to the 9900 as the 9810 doesn’t cut it for us former Bold users.

It’s time for the BlackBerry Bold 9900 to launch already.  Every other major US carrier has it except AT&T!  So far we see the Torch 9810 from AT&T and everything seems to have halted since then.  AT&T tweeted out over the weekend that they are launching the Bold 9900 soon.

Thanks Bogizo for the tip!

Not all stores, but I personally experienced an incident through all last week and this week where AT&T stores have been selling off the BlackBerry Torch 9810 and the PIN would be dead on them.  Then last night we got an email tip of the same thing going on in a few New York region stores.

A story published in CrackBerry forums in regards to AT&T Torch 9810 pins getting deactivated as 2,700 units were stolen and RIM killed the devices off making them useless.  I can’t connect the two stories together but it sounds very coincidental and maybe RIM killed off more pins than they should have.  Poor AT&T customers dealing with the aftermath.

Thanks Bogizo for the tip!

A new roadmap for AT&T has leaked out, which to me sounds like what we need since the BlackBerry Bold 9900 launch for the carrier is in limbo.  Unfortunately the BlackBerry Bold 9900 is not on here which troubles me a bit since I am an AT&T customer.  On the bright side, both the Torch 9860 and Curve 9360 are mentioned in the roadmap.  All we see here is that both devices are set to launch in Q4 which still seems a bit generic in saying since the year is coming to a close end any way.  A month would help, but at least we know AT&T will be picking up the new Curve which RIM just announced.

Getting back to the BlackBerry Bold 9900, I doubt AT&T is doing away with the device and am hoping they had originally planned for an earlier launch date before releasing this internal roadmap.

Source: PocketNow, CrackBerry

Source: BerryReview