RIM and Orange Introduce BlackBerry 8820 Smartphone in Spain

Orange Spain and Research In Motion (RIM) introduced the BlackBerry® 8820 smartphone in Spain, which will be commercially available from Orange Spain in mid-August.

The BlackBerry 8820 is the first dual-mode BlackBerry handset that combines EDGE/GPRS/GSM cellular and Wi-Fi® connectivity for data access and voice support through UMA (unlicensed mobile access), which reinforces Orange's convergence strategy and is compatible with its “Unico Empresas” service. The handset supports the 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi standards to provide access over Wi-Fi connections in the enterprise, through public hotspots and wireless home networks.

To meet various security requirements for users accessing a Wi-Fi connection, the BlackBerry 8820 is compliant with Wi-Fi security protocols including WEP (Wireless Equivalency Protocol), WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2, as well as Cisco Compatible Extensions for simple, secure connectivity with Cisco wireless solutions. For enterprises that require Wi-Fi users to access the corporate network through a VPN (Virtual Private Network).

The BlackBerry 8820 also includes built-in GPS (Global Positioning System) that provides support for a wide range of location based applications and services. This smartphone from Orange Spain also comes with BlackBerry® Maps pre-installed, providing users step-by-step with driving directions.

The BlackBerry 8820 features a highly tactile full QWERTY keyboard, large ultra bright landscape display, RIM's user-friendly trackball navigation system and best-in-class voice and data functionality. It also includes a microSD expansion memory slot that supports both microSD (up to 2GB) and microSDHC (4GB to 32GB) memory cards. Four GB memory cards are available today, and the microSD industry expects 8GB cards will be available later this year. -BlackBerry