Taiwan Mobile has announced fees for their BlackBerry services.

Currently offering the BlackBerry 7290 and BlackBerry 8700g, monthly fees will range fromNT$899 (US$28) to NT$1,799.

The company will offer the BlackBerry 7290 and 8700g handsets for sale at NT$7,990 (US$245) and NT$12,990, respectively.

For NT$899 a month, a subscriber of the service can transfer up to 2MB (megabytes) of data with additional data transfers charged NT$0.15 per KB (kilobyte), according to TWM. The NT$1,799 plan allows for unlimited data transfer, noted the company.

Overseas roaming will operate this way: 40% off in the seven countries that are members of the Bridge Mobile Alliance, of which TWM is a member; 20% off in the US for T-Mobile users and 50% off for Cingular users; in China, NT$0.23 discounted per KB for users of China Mobile.

Ooly 2,000-3,000 handsets are initially available for sale, TWM president Harvey Chang said. But he added that enough BlackBerrys would be available to serve an anticipated 10,000 BlackBerry subscribers within a year to year and a half.

Just this morning, India telecom provider Hutchinson Essar announced that it would be carrying BlackBerry for its more than 22 million customers.

Initially, Hutch- which the name it does business under- will be offering the BlackBerry 8700g, BlackBerry 7130g and BlackBerry 7290. The emphasis will be on Hutch's enterprise customers, a press rlease issued by Hutch and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion said.

A Pearl launch is expected soon, but the Hutch gave no date for that.

Solution Technology said it will debut an all-in-one integrated ArmorPlus for BlackBerry 7200 utility.

To be rolled out at the upcoming Emergency Technology Business Showcase in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., a week from today, the application will include functionalities for for Barcode Scanning, GPS, Touch Screens with eSiguature and Secure Data Memory Card capability.

Specific components include:

• Class 2 laser barcode scanner from Symbol Technologies;
• ArmorPlus for BlackBerry GPS, with off-road and off-net capabilitiesm abd
• Touch Screen Window option with signature capture capabilities and a touch-sensitive window;

BBHub reader Scott Kane is not able to come up with an explanation of why a series of BlackBerrys he has used all seem to totally lose their Bluetooth connection in his automobiles.

"I have had problems with the 7100, 7105, 7290, 8700, and now 8100 all dropping my Bluetooth connection in my car," Scott tells us.

He adds that his vehicle has a U-Connect from DaimlerChrysler factory installed. Not only has it been happening in five different cars and five different BlackBerrys.

By now, the first indications of a failure are familiar to Scott. He says that while the BlackBerry Bluetooth connection is fine and reliable at first, then before long then the BlackBerry starts showing "connection to U-Connect lost."

Removing the battery and then placing it back in provides temporary relief. But do you agree with Scott and me that constantly having to do this is a pain?

"At first I thought it to be the car," he writes. "But now that I've been through 3 cars and countless BlackBerry devices I think the problem lies in the BlackBerry."

Readers, have you had similar experiences?

As T-Mobile prepares to put the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 on sale today, it stands to reason they feel they may feel the need to move some older BlackBerry models.

Older models that may not sell too well unless they were given away.

But then T-Mob is going a step further. Buy a BlackBerry 7105 on Amazon and ultimately- after all rebates are in and counted, you will come ahead $20.01.

That ain't nuthin.'

Go for a QWERTY T-Mobile BlackBerry 7290 and ultimately (just before the sun goes Nova five billion years from now) (six months or so from now) you'll make $69.99.

Here:

Pinstacker dc2193 has an interesting issue.

He's recently updated his BlackBerry 7290 to BlackBerry OS 4.1 but after the procedure his browser icon seems to have disappeared.

"I got the themes to load fine and no where on the phone can I get a browser icon," he tells us. "Emails come through fine and Cingular Tier two and I have gone round and round to make sure the back end is provisioned correctly. Anyway to install a browser ap by way of desktop manager? and if so which one?"

By the way it is refreshing to read a report from a user who doesn't automatically blame tech support for something not happening.

It's then that Pinstacker msbrenda64 acknowledges that a conversation with a Cingular Tier Two probably has covered service books. But then she comes up with an alternative: Opera Mini.

I've provided the link below.

Brazilian mobile phone operator Claro says it will to start selling BlackBerry handsets to individual consumers in retail locations on July 15.

That's after Claro launches the BlackBerry for corporate users in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro this week.

Claro will offer he BlackBerry 7290, BlackBerry 7100g and BlackBerry 8700g.

Claro, a unit of América Móvil, says it intends to serve corporate customers throughout Brazil.

A competitor, TIM began offering the BlackBerry 8700g to individual customers in May.

An updated T-Mobile BlackBerry 7290 User Guide has just gone up on the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center area of the BlackBerry site.

This 160-page UG has been updated to factor in BlackBerry OS 4.1.

At the top of this post, I show you the first part of this User Guide's Table of Contents.

Want to see the second page of the TOC? Follow me...

A couple of new T-Mobile BlackBerry 7290 documents have been posted on the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center of the BlackBerry website.

The Getting Started Guide features a guided map of the device, as well as a description of each feature.

The guided map is at the top of this post.

Here's the table of contents:

Based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, telecommunications services provider Etisalat (Emirates Telecommunications Corporation) has teamed up with BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion introduce BlackBerry in the Middle East Gulf region.

Initial models to be introduced are the Blackberry 8700g and BlackBerry 7290. These models will operate on Etisalat's GSM/GPRS network and, in more than 40 countries via Etisalat's more than 100 global roaming relationships.

 

 

Time once again to pick up on our new BBHub daily feature called BlackBerry Support Document of the Day.

Every week, the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center lists their 25 most viewed documents for that week.

Every day, starting from #1, we've been identifying a document on this list.

As to be expected, there has been some shuffling in the rank order of viewed documents. We go to #15: BlackBerry 7290 - Safety and Product Information Booklet - English.

'Bout what you would expect. Use common sense. Don't go where it is hot or dangerous, and watch out where you use the thing.

Time to pick up on our new BBHub daily feature called BlackBerry Support Document of the Day.

Every week, the BlackBerry Technical Knowledge Center lists their 25 most viewed documents for that week.

Every day, starting from #1, we've been identifying a document on this list.

As to be expected, there has been some shuffling in the rank order of viewed documents. Today we are up to (actually, "down to") item #10.

The current #10 is BlackBerry 7290 Wireless Handheld User Guide. That's the Table of Contents at the top.

Just noticed a BlackBerry 7290 deal on inphonic for $49.99. That is if you sign a new contract with T-Mobile.

Here's how you get there:

• List-$349.00
• Off-$100.00. Now we are at $249.99.
• 150.00 Bonus Voice & Data Mail-in Rebate, gets us to $99.99.
• $50.00 T-Mobile Mail-in Rebate, and we have now arrived at $49.99.
  

Note: The link to this offer I've posted is to my zip code- but just substitute your zip code in the URL string and it should work for ya.

Well, we've been offering a daily countdown of the ten most viewed questions and answers on  the BlackBerry section of the technology advice site Experts-Exchange. I believe this a good place to gage what imponderables are on the minds of BlackBerry users.

Because there has been some movement in the most viewed questions, I am going to digress and note the tenth-ranked question, which was not on the list when we started this feature.

Question is "changing ring tone and erasing signature."

I have cingular blackberry 7290," hiroyuki718 writes. "Do you know how to change ring tone and erase signature like "Sent via BlackBerry from Cingular Wireless?"

Experts-Exchange BlackBerry expert capgroup offers an answer.

 

Australia-based diversified telephnony services provider Optus and BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion are introducing the BlackBerry 8700g in Australia.

No pricing info yet, but here's some precedent.  The three BlackBerry models Optus currently offers, and their price in Australian dollars are the BlackBerry 7100g, $659; the BlackBerry 7290, $789; and the BlackBerry 7730, for $899.

SingTel-owned Optus joins Vodafone Australia in introducing the 8700 series BlackBerry in that nation. Vodafone's model is the virtually identical BlackBerry 8700v.