T-Mobile preparing for early BlackBerry 8900 launch for business customers?

General

If the answer to the question posed in the headline is “yes” (which it certainly seems to be), the following question should be: “T-Mobile actually has business customers?” Oh, okay. According to an internal document released onto the interwebs, it looks like the big Pink is planning on freeing up a limited number of Curve 8900 devices on January 19th, a few solid weeks prior to its official February 11th drop date. The sad catch is that in order to get your grubby hands on one of the T-Mobz branded handsets, you’ll have to be an employee of a company that has a business account with the carrier. Still, early for some is better than late for all, but we’d obviously love to see a more even-handed distribution process, enabling the masses to show off their very own “smallest, slimmest, and lightest full-QWERTY blackberry available”. Anyone that’s game for setting up a shell corporation and going in on a group buy should form a line to the left.

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25 Comments
  • Jeff

    SWEET!

    I think I could be the ONLY T-Mobile business customer!!!!!!!

    I have been waiting for this phone and now I am sooo excited!

  • http://www.bgr.com Ritchie

    Nice !!! … but i rather get it on at&t better

  • samtheman

    I have a business berry through tmobile but my employer won’t spring for an upgrade. Anyone know if I can do it on my own dime and get a in on this deal?

  • Eric Thompson

    Hi Joshua: I can confirm that T-Mobile USA and their international affiliates do indeed have a large B2B base with very competitive pricing.

    Domestically, it’s not as large as at&t or Verizon since they can’t bundle existing wireline infrastructure which naturally gives the incumbents an edge.

    Some large media conglomerates such as Universal Music Group (largest music label group in the world owned by Vivendi) have forgone major contracts with the incubmbently owned wireless providers in favor to T-Mobile in a cost cutting effort and for the flexibilty advantage they give over their competitors.

    There is a lot less red tape dealing with T-Mobile’s B2B team and they are much faster to react to business related concerns in my experience. Whether we need out of the box support including in building repeaters, next day deliveries to almost anywhere and a CS group that doesn’t treat you like some no name number, they deliver.

    The new 8900 Curve is a definite welcome addition. The WiFi/UMA options T-Mobile gives us allow our users even in the most concave areas of our highrises to make and recieve voice calls and stay connected to instant email notifications.

    I’d highly recommend them to other large enterprise conglomerates of our size.

  • http://@samtheman iamjoel5

    You would have to talk to your company about that. Whoever handles the phone lines. In my company its the computer tech guy, with approval from the head of administration. Good luck on that one! But hey, if ur willing to pay then it might just produce the fruit if they’re not a-holes

  • Greg

    After reading this I thought hmmm… we have 2 individual lines that are actually used for and paid thru our small business. I gave T-Mobile a call to see what I needed to do to change from individual to business. All they need is a Change of Responsibility (COR) form filled out and we would be good to go to pick up an 8900 sooner than later. You do need to be a real business and would need a tax ID #, etc.. I am waiting another day or so to make sure this is all real. It would be a pain to go thru this and not be able to get the 8900 early.

  • Queen4111

    I want this phone on January 18th! It’s NOT fair!

  • acharbnr

    Does anyone know if the cost has been announced yet?

  • http://www.bulldoglist.com joe

    lmao @ jeff, what a fag.

  • Andy

    Our company also just migrated over 8000 users from Sprint Nextel to T-Mobile. It took a few months to transition since Sprint kept holding things up, but in the end we are more than satisfied.

    To be honest, I was a little concerned about the transition being that Sprint covered us well in most major cities we travel to, but T-Mobile has worked just fine for us. I actually prefer T-Mobile’s voice quality even over ATT which has a bigger coverage area.

    We didn’t want to sacrifice quality for price and made the best decision to switch. We save on average about $30 per line which equates to large annual savings.

    Eric is right. Their business group is very responsive and willing to help. Everytime we have a special request to ATT or Sprint, they would take days to respond and there was always some legal document that had to be signed/notarized and the process was just cumbersome. It was typical telco BS. If we had an emergency or if one of our top execs needed a replacement, we still had to go through bottom level support who wouldn’t give us the attention we felt we should get being that we paid them so much each month.

    If things go well, we’ll move our remaining 2500 ATT wireless lines and 1200 Verizon Wireless lines too mid year.

  • Sarah

    I want this device too. Our organization has been using the 8703e’s for way too long and we finally have approval for a upgrade.

    Anyone have a link to T-Mobile business services to see if we can save any money by moving our Verizon lines over?

    We’re out of contract with Verizon right now. We don’t have as many lines as you guys do (only 1150 employees) but still looking for ways to save money. Verizon treats us like we’re not important to them.

  • TelekomD

    @ Sarah: Try this link: There is also a toll free number you can use to speak to a biz rep directly.

    http://www.t-mobile.com/business/Solutions.aspx

  • iPhoneLuvR

    I was tasked with three options from my CIO:

    1) Negotiate our contract with att and press for much better rates
    2) Find another carrier who can beat att’s rates
    3) Disconnect service for all users below management level.

    We have 6 offices (all in major cities) throughout the US with a total of 4300 employees and growing (surprisingly) despite our countries terrible economy.

    I’ve been unsuccessful in getting att to lower their rates unless I subscribe to more wireline services which we frankly do not need right now.

    I’m down to options 2 and 3. It’s a huge pain changing providers on a national level and the hardware costs are a big one time charge that we’d have to eat, but if I can save $$$ long term it would be a great invenstment for our company’s financial health.

    I’m down with the 8900 and it’s specs especially for it’s global capabilities and for ways for us to save money on internatonal tariffs by using the UMA voice feature for calls back to the US.

    Thanks for the link TelekomD

  • backbeat

    You should know, Joe. You should know. ;)

  • backbeat

    I’m hopeful the 8900s keyboard is damned close to the Bold’s. If RIM had to compromise it too much, I’ll have to wait until later in the year to look at other options.

  • Galvatron

    wonder whay tmobile dosn’r request a berry that can utilize it’s UMTS band

  • John

    So do I need to put in an order to get it on the 18th or do I just go pick one up? Good news for business customers.

  • Rick V.

    I’m curious if the fact the company I work for has a corporate discount plan, allows me to get this phone early???

  • Andy

    did they add 3G yet????

    what are they waiting for

  • Pat

    My company has Tmobile as one of the carriers we can use. That being said, why would I want to get this non-3G phone from Tmobile when I can go to ATT Bold?

  • Jeff

    @ Pat

    I would pick this over the Bold for UMA (calls over wifi). It really depends on your situation. For example, my company pays for my t-mobile and I get great service at the office, but I have practically no service at home. UMA will allow me to get service in my home.

    One question I have on UMA, is if I can place wifi calls while traveling internationally without having to pay for roaming??????

  • Rick V.

    Size, style, battery life, screen – should I continue?

  • @Jeff

    Yep. Free international roaming as long as you are connected to wifi and show UMA as your connection.

    It’s pretty sick, actually. T-Mobile offers this capability for US customers because they don’t have infrastructure here (landlines) like the other big 3 do.

  • Yaakov W

    I had just decided to give up on my phone and get another. I had decided on a Curve but a friend said that the 8900 is coming out. How is the 8900 so much better than the curve?

  • Chris Taveras

    This is true I currently have 5 of them in house. Called my rep told him i heard XYZ and he confirmed and I have them…DAM NICE DEVICE!
    But Im a storm lover and hate T-Mo.

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