Optus began selling the BlackBerry Bold 9900 back in August, and now Telstra is also on board with the BlackBerry 7-powered model. What’s particularly notable about this release is that Telstra is bundling BlackBerry Individual Service (BIS) with the phone, something it has been lax on doing for non-business customers with most recent BlackBerry releases.
BIS gives you unlimited email access and browsing (via the native browser), meaning you don’t necessarily need a massive separate data allowance. Telstra is selling the phone on a variety of contracts, with the $99 Freedom Connect being the cheapest that doesn’t require a separate handset payment. There are certainly other options out there, as our Planhacker listings attest, but if you want Telstra as your network this is a strong contender.
thernus
Monday, October 31, 2011 at 2:42 PMcan you still not easily sync a hotmail email and calendar with this? i know there are work arounds with gmail but my girlfriend uses hotmail exclusively!
wtmontana
Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 11:12 PMGot this phone outright through an Optus agent a month or so back, the phone freezes and plays up constantly it frustrates me that the coverage is so shocking even with a Telstra SIM card in it. Now Telstra has released it and is including the BIS plan as well?? Ripped off much :(