AT&T to Offer BlackBerry Bold November 4

Remember back in May when the BlackBerry Bold was announced? After prolonged testing, AT&T is finally going to offer it for sale on November 4.

AT&T has revealed that it will begin offering RIM’s “flagship” BlackBerry Bold smartphone for sale on November 4. The confirmation came as part of the company’s conference call on third-quarter earnings, although the company has now confirmed the announcement.

The BlackBerry Bold was announced in May of 2008, and was initially scheduled to go on sale during the summer of 2008. But summer came and went, with AT&T only saying last month it was being very careful testing the BlackBerry Bold after complaints of dropped calls and poor connectivity hampered the initial release of Apple’s iPhone 3G, which is also exclusive to AT&T in the United States. AT&T’s caution in releasing the handset may have been well-founded: reports have had UK’s Orange suspending shipments of the device until it could work out software problems.

The BlackBerry Bold is currently on sale in about 20 countries.

The BlackBerry Bold will feature a 480 by 320-pixel display, 3G data capabilities, an integrated GPS, and Wi-Fi wireless networking. The phone will also offer 1 GB of onboard storage (expandable to 16 GB), a two megapixel video-capable camera, dual speakers, and media playback capabilities. And, of course, it sports the BlackBerry suite of Web-surfing and connectivity features, including the ability to access corporate and enterprise email systems.

The BlackBerry Bold will be priced at $299.99 with a two-year service contract