Those of you dying to get your QWERTY on with RIM's hot new Blackberry Bold can start marking your calendars and stashing cash under the cushions -- release dates and pricing info have hit the tubes this morning. As expected, AT&T will get the Bold first in July for $300, while Verizon, Sprint, and T-Mobile customers will have to wait until September. Oddly, T-Mo subs will have to cough up an extra $50, which seems a little unfair. Of course, these aren't official dates and prices, so things are likely to change, but we'd say everything seems in the ballpark, wouldn't you?

Whoa now, hold up there -- yes, we know HTC's got some serious equipment in the works for Sprint this year, but we can't put that Mogul out to pasture just yet. Fortunately, Sprint and HTC both seem relatively committed to keeping the flagship Windows Mobile model up to date, and we now have an official beta firmware floating around that adds Sprint TV and the real prize, Windows Mobile 6.1. Naturally, due caution must be observed when dealing with prerelease wares, but let's be honest, Mogul owners: every single one of you are going to give this a shot, now aren't you?

The folks over at Computerworld just ran the current 3G providers in America through their paces, only to discover that AT&T came out on top in almost every category. Well, it appears the monolithic telco plans to keep its edge (er...) on the competition -- by upping its HSPA service to a whopping 20Mbps come 2009. Our main man Ralph de la Vega said that the process wouldn't require a major overhaul to the provider's infrastructure, and that they're already working on punching up the current 3.6Mbps speeds to 7.2Mbps "in the labs." Apparently, this won't stall plans for forthcoming 4G / 700MHz / LTE service from the company -- it'll just be icing on the cake.

Read - Which 3G network is the best?
Read - AT&T plans 20-megabit 3G by 2009

Is that iDEN's swan song we hear playing in the background? Nope, apparently not. Buried in between fits of bad news in Sprint's earnings call yesterday, CEO Dan Hesse chatted up the rollout of its next-gen PTT network, based on Qualcomm's QChat technology that rides atop EV-DO Rev. A. Currently available in just a very small handful of markets -- and only to business customers, at that -- Hesse says that the new Direct Connect goods will be available in 40 markets over the next few months, and on a full 80 percent of its EV-DO Rev. A network by the end of 2008. That setup gives Sprint a nice migration path from its legacy Nextel network, but interestingly, Hesse says that the company's "economic analysis" suggests that it should actually keep running iDEN and QChat side by side. Of course, if this is the same nature of "economic analysis" that got it into the financial pickle it's currently in, it might just be worth... you know, reanalyzing.

[Via mocoNews]

Things aren't going so hot down Sprint way right now -- although the carrier recently entered into that landmark $12B WiMAX deal with Clearwire and several other companies, it lost over a million wireless subscribers last quarter and posted a net loss of $211M. That's enough for CEO Dan Hesse to smack the emergency button: he's laying off 4,000 workers, closing Sprint stores, and cutting rates in an efforts to gain back customers and get back into the black. On top of all that, word on the street is that Sprint may also start selling off other assets, including lame-duck Nextel, even though that would involve "significant complexities," according to Hesse. Still, just the fact that he's thinking about it seems like a sign -- too bad no one asked him about those Deutsche Telekom buyout rumors.

Q1 2008 wasn't a pretty one for Sprint. The company lost 1.09 million subscribers to the competition, while also losing a bit of ground on its average revenue per customer, now at $56 a month. Sprint's got 52.8 subscribers left to squander work with, so we'll see if initiatives like a potential Nextel spinoff or the upcoming Samsung Instinct (pictured) can do anything to staunch the bleeding.

[Via Electronista]

Even as Android hums right along, Google's still not shy about pursuing every other conceivable angle to take over the mobile space, proving that it's one of the more platform-agnostic companies in the biz. The latest partnership comes with Sprint, where the carrier's content deck will be retooled to use Google for search -- a change that'll affect current devices, obviously -- but what's more, Sprint will start offering home screen search on some of its devices starting later this year (Windows Mobile-based ones, if we had to guess). Also in store are preloaded Google Maps and YouTube, two of the more popular mobile destinations in the game at the moment. Going forward, the twosome "will continue to explore ways to provide users with compelling mobile experiences and more application choices," so expect Google's future on-device offerings to be pretty easy to access from your Sprint weapon of choice -- not to say it's usually very hard to begin with.

[Via MobileBurn]

Well, what do you know? This week's How Would You Change question hits home in the Mobile world, so we figured we'd give you all a fair shot at chiming in. For those who've coughed up the requisite coin to procure a BlackBerry Curve 8330 on one of our nation's CDMA carriers, how on Earth is it treating you? Found any annoyances you'd like to see changed? If so, head on over to Engadget Classic and drop your comments there.

Late's better than never -- usually, anyway -- and a rumored release date finally stuck long enough for the BlackBerry Curve 8330 to make an appearance on Sprint's online store. In fact, as "mid-May" goes, May 9 is actually on the early side of things if you want to get technical about it, so we guess some kudos are actually due here. Sprint's asking $179.99 on contract with rebates for the pleasure of indulging in its latest mobile productivity tool, which you'll ironically be using to respond to emails during meetings that you're supposed to be listening in on. Funny how the world works, isn't it?

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

After the April slip-up -- which we're hearing might be more RIM's fault than anything else, a thought validated by the fact that Sprint, Verizon, and Alltel have all slipped -- it looks like Sprint customers and would-be customers might finally be able to get their hands on some sweet, sweet Curve lovin' tomorrow. Boy Genius Report has netted what appears to be a page out of Sprint's internal Playbook, showing "direct ship" availability as of May 9 for a mere $179.99 on contract after the full menu of rebates has been applied. Not bad, all things considered (the price, that is, not the delay we've been suffering through).

It's been known for years that some of Sprint Nextel's Direct Connect spectrum causes bouts of interference with public safety equipment, and the FCC got the ball rolling on a plan several years ago for the carrier to swap some airwaves with agencies around the country by June of this year to keep everyone happy. Problem is, some 500 of those agencies still aren't ready to trade, and Sprint has taken issue with the fact that the FCC wants it to meet its end of the bargain by next month anyhow. Nevertheless, a federal appeals court has ruled in the FCC's favor, setting the wheels in motion for a possible massive loss of Nextel coverage on the drop-dead date of June 26 -- but industry analysts aren't too worried. Most seem to be predicting that the FCC will end up extending the deadline by six months or so anyway, so Kevin Martin and his ragtag gang must just love watching carriers sweat. Oh, not to mention a few million Direct Connect customers.

[Via Phone Scoop]

With the comforting knowledge that HTC's lovely new devices are inbound for Sprint, we admit, we're having an awful time working up excitement over the 800w at this point -- but we've got to give all these things a fair shake on the open market before we figure out who's king of the Windows Mobile hill this year. WMExperts claims that Sprint is now targeting July 22 for the grand entrance of Palm's latest Treo, a date that would still jibe with the timeline we've already seen in the wild. The potential launch date also brought with it a handful of new tidbits: Windows Mobile 6.1, integrated GPS, an illuminated keyboard that falls between the Centro's and the 700 series size wise, and it's apparently "very fast." It also seems that Sprint's version will likely be coming in Charcoal Black, a color that would fit in nicely with the carrier's trend of launching dark-ish smartphones. If the Curve is any indication, it's a color that'll suit the device well.

After yesterday's revealing of a sweeping new partnership with Verizon, Qwest took an opportunity during its earnings call today to go into detail on exactly what the deal means. The Baby Bell confirmed that Qwest branding will completely go away -- Verizon devices sold will be Verizon through and through, with no hint of rebranded MVNO action like the old setup with Sprint (which, in some cases, had meant Qwest exclusives like the Fusion). They also say that they're looking forward to implementing Verizon's next-gen (read: LTE) network just as soon as it's available, but really, here's our question: just what would Qwest be implementing, anyway? For all practical purposes, the company's doing nothing more than becoming a glorified authorized Verizon reseller; big wigs on the call said that the terms of the deal are "much, much better" than the old one with Sprint, and considering that they won't actually have to go through the daily grind of running an MVNO, it's no wonder. It's still unclear how Sprint customers are going to be transitioned, but we imagine Sprint proper would be happy to take 'em off Qwest's hands if it came down to it.

It looks like the price was right, because that possible deal mentioned by Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg a while back to supplant Sprint as Qwest's wireless provider of choice has now materialized in the form of a gargantuan five-year deal. From what little has been said so far, it seems that the company might be abandoning the MVNO model it currently uses with Sprint and will simply be marketing Verizon Wireless devices through its website, telesales, and in-store channels, giving customers the option of being billed directly by Big Red (how very kind of them!) or having the charges bundled in with the remainder of their service. Also remaining to be seen is how the transition of Qwest's existing Sprint-based customers -- some 800,000 of them -- would be transitioned, if at all. More details are expected to emerge during its earnings call on Tuesday, and we'd imagine current Qwest wireless customers are on the edges of their seats.