PhoneNews.com can confirm that MetroPCS is planning to rollout EVDO data access in non-AWS markets beginning at the end of this month with the launch of the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8330, which will be an exclusive to Best Buy locations in Metro PCS markets with legacy CDMA band support (such as Miami, Orlando, Jacksonville, Dallas, Atlanta, Sacramento, San Francisco) on 800/1900 MHz.
The Curve is identical to the models found on Sprint and Verizon, and will also feature full BIS support for an additional $10 on top of the $50 rate plan.
The cost for the device is set at $449.99 according to the most recent roadmap with corporate locations and third-party dealers offering the device after the requisite training has been completed by both dealers and techs, with customer issues to be handled by Best Buy until the device launches through the direct store and dealer network later on in the year.
AWS markets will not be carrying the Curve as it does not feature the necessary support for CDMA AWS 1700 with no word on availability outside legacy markets.
[…] up on our initial report regarding the forthcoming release of the BlackBerry Curve on MetroPCS, the first image and […]
With regard to the Samsung sch-r810 “Finesse”, it may be a Delve on the inside, but Google the “Samsung Anycall Haptic (w-420/w-4200)” and you will see what it looks like on the outside. That phone was released in Korea as the iPhone killer. Not sure how well it’s done, but it hasn’t been released in the US. I don’t even know if it’s cdma cause I can’t find any specs on it and haven’t really tried to find out what service Korea has. But maybe Metro got a good deal on them from Samsung and is having them provisioned with a Delve-like crippled ui. The Behold has the same send/end keys, but the earpiece part of the phone is different.
Sorry about getting so emotional… but I do love my cell phone above all other digital devices. 🙂
Here is list of upcoming phones (not confirmed)
Kyocera Neo
Motorola Evoke
Motorola Hint ( being reprogrammed. Supposed to come out before April )
RIM Blackberry Curve
Samsung R810 Finesse (upgrade to the Delve. same body I think. Touchscreen)
Samsung Tint
I only now know that R810 will be coming near the end of March.
Info from Metropcshelp.com
blackberry curve 8330 is up on metropcs.com. $449.
Yeah, but they won’t actually sell it on their site for two or three weeks and the damn Best Buys only carry three Blackberries each. What kind of marketing madness is this?
does anyone know when the moto hint is coming to miami? thank you
The samsung finesse will be in stores on the last week of march. I have also heard that metropcs and verizon are suppose to go on a 4g network(LTE) by the end on 2009. No other carrier is going to have this network
The motorola evoke is not going to hit the market, It did come out but was recalled by metropcs cause of to many issuses with the handset. I have heard that it will be relaunched but a date is still not set.
Bert, do you know of any other blackberry devices coming up to metro pcs ?
Metro’s EVDO access leaves much to be desired. I get frequent data outages to the point where pages won’t load and messages won’t send, forcing me to pull the battery. I hope this is temporary.
Will the finesse have metroweb?
omegawolf747 what market are you in? I’m in Atlanta and it’s been great, I even get higher DL speeds than my AT&T 3G data at times.
I’m in the Detroit market. It hasn’t been as good here, unfortunately. I’m on 1x most of the time, not EVDO. Even when I have sufficient speed, web surfing is often painfully slow, sometimes non-existent. I experience frequent delays in sending texts and emails and am frequently logged off my IM programs.
I’ve heard through the grapevine that Metro is supposed to start working on Detroit area problems tonight.
samsung finesse will have metroweb, it has memory card slot, you can also play movies in it. If you guys want to get an idea of this touchscreen look at the instict from sprint. It is a similar phone.
Metro Pcs will eventually have more blackberry’s coming out. They are going to have a huweai touchscreen about october or november. For metro it’s all about competeing with sprint, verizon, tmobile and at&t.
hello… does anybody know when the blackberry curve will be released in new york????? im si tried of this messanger phone..lol
uhhhh the blackberry was already released here in texas idk about new york though. i have the black MESSAGER an i cant wait to upgrade to the Finesse i just got the messager in aug when it was realased too.
samsung skimped out when they made the messager thats why im upgrading. my keyboard is cracking like litterally
The Samsung Finesse is on the Metro website.
Samsung finesse is available for purchase online, but not in Redding, Ca stores until next week. I’m sad. I want one now dang it. $349 is not too bad either.
it’s funny, they had the finesse available for purchase online on monday. Now it says in stores only, LOL
I just bought the Finesse yesterday and I think I’m in love.
The Finesse is functionally similar to the Samsung Delve for Alltel and the Instinct for Sprint. Like the Delve, it has Samsung’s widget-based TouchWiz interface, though it isn’t a smart phone. The phone has a 3″, 240×400 touch screen and a 2-megapixel camera. It’s capable of running on 3G networks, though MetroPCS’s 3G rollout is spotty so far.
have anybody bought the blackberry curve for Metro PCS Yet? if so how is it please let me know thanks
I have. Coverage has been spotty with frequent data outages, ie phone calls and text messaging would work, but Internet, push email and IM would be disabled until resetting the connection. It’s been better the last couple days though.
Aside from network problems, the phone itself rocks, as I knew it would!
would you reccomend anyone to buy the metro blackberry?
Overall, I’ve had a good time with this phone. I’d say buy it, but be prepared to deal with infrequent data outages (at least in SE Michigan) and familiarize yourself with going into the connection manager to disable and reenable the connection to get your data service back.
hopefully it will work for me i live in northern california and have been waiting for them to get a pda phone. Will the blackberry curve 8330 for sprint work with metro yet?
From my understanding, if you flash a phone from another carrier over to Metro, it’s only good for phone calls and texting. Data won’t work.
well that sucks but im still going to buy this phone i just hope it works out cause 450 is alot for a phone
I got a finesse and I love it. I got the mission impossible trilogy with it. I have since gone online and downloaded some videos onto a microsd card and they work great. I also love the handwriting text messaging. Yes, you can literally write a note with the provided stylus and it will translate into typed text message. frickin sweet!!!
Which website is best to use for downloading movies onto a microsd card and how many GB should the card be.
the card that came with my finesse is only a 2gb card. It holds three movies on it. As far as websites I don’t know.
for the blackberry curve for metro can you watch you tube videos on it?
does anybody know if you can watch internet videos with the finesse? I have one now and it won’t play youtube or any other videos on the web. Internet is extremely slow. The phone itself is pretty cool though.
I’ve had the curve since it’s release with metro. I love it. I also found a way to convert all video to a format that can be viewed on the curve as well as on my old motorola rockr. Download a program called Format Factory. It’s the hottest. I also bought an 8G microSD card from microcenter for $20. The only thing I haven’t figured out how to do is get streaming radio on my curve. Apparently the carrier is the problem. Youtube videos cannot be viewed because the format is not supported by the technology on the phone not the carrier.
For radio, have you tried iheartradio and Pandora, both available on BlackBerry’s File World app?
As for the videos, it’s likely because YouTube videos are FLV and the Berry can only play AVI and 3GP.
no they dont play on the finesse. i have one. nice but slow internet
To my knowledge, Metro still doesn’t flash Blackberry’s. It wouldn’t make sense to flash a BB with Metro because all you can do is talk and text. No data, no picture messages, no video, no email..no internet. What would be the point?
Besides, why would they flash other carriers’ Berries now that they have their own?
That’s a simple question to answer. One of the largest problems for MetroPCS is device cost. Paying full retail is a large barrier to entry.
If MetroPCS could “flash BlackBerries” to MetroPCS, they would.
The problem is that BlackBerry devices work much differently than your standard CDMA phone. They have lots of security protection layers to encrypt data (which, is why they’re loved so much by corporations). It also means that hacking them to work on another carrier is much more difficult in many cases, mostly on the CDMA side of things.
Ummm…Its April 16th. I live in New York Ctiy. I still have my blackberry with my tmobile account but I also bought a melo phone from Metro on April 6th because he said I couldnt switch my bb from tmobile and he said they wont have it anytime soon. Does anyone know when the BB will be hitting New York?
No Metro Berry in AWS cities.
FYI for those of you who are looking to place the BB 8350i on Boost, it’s actually quite possible. All you would need is to download the servicebooks for nextel which can be found on http://www.crackberry.com. It’s actually quite simple, I’m a Sprint/NEXTEL Tech support rep, and I myself have boost due to the fact that our emp plans suck. I found it to be more economical to just get boost and I use my 8350i on it. The only thing that would not be available would be the BB email address… what I mean by that is; everytime someone buys a BB most companies will require for you to get a BB plan, and within that plan it includes a personalized email address that you setup just for your phone. EX: if you have Nextel/Sprint your email will be (USERNAME@Sprint.Blackberry.net) Tmobile(USERNAME@Tmo.Blackberry.net) ATT (USERNAME@ATT.Blackberry.net) and so on and so forth… QUESTIONS? Please email me at neonplatinum@msn.com THANKS
FYI if the email is a very big thing for you, then you also have the option to use BoostMobiles email address which would come straight to your phone that would be EX: 6465551212@myboostmobile.com, and you would receive the email as a text.
If I already have a verizon blackberry curve 8330 can it be flashed with the internet and pic messaging for metro? Or are they only allowing THEIR blackberrys? PLEASE LET ME KNOW..i am using an older version of blackberry with metro n have no access to web..and would like to upgrade;)
OH and……will METRO stores be able to flash the 8330’s or only ceratin dealers? I recently bought an 8330 from ebay..but will it work with web now for metro?????????
MarieKccBerry, at this time MetroPCS cannot flash any BlackBerry to MetroPCS service. The only BlackBerries that will work on MetroPCS, are the ones sold by MetroPCS directly.
As noted above, this is because of the security protocols that BlackBerry uses. They are much stronger than a typical phone, making it impossible for the MetroFLASH service to modify them for MetroPCS service.
I have a blackberry curve from Verizon but Metro service..IS there any way to get my phone flashed? I know Metro can’t do it, but is there another way? Please let me know!
yes all blackberry phones can be flashed metro want do because they will lose money outside dealers do it all the time i have the curve with internet and pic mail all i lost was the pin texting from bb to bb
And yes im with metro flash ant phone thats with sprint verizon only cannot flash tmobile or at&t for more info email me at brownboy0000@yahoo.com
i have an old blackberry pearl 8130 from when i was with att. can that be flashed to metro pcs service? i know they now offer the curve, i was just wondeing if for a charge they could just use the phone i already have?