A few weeks ago we posted an internal doc online that showed Bell prepping to release the LTE-enabled BlackBerry PlayBook. This had a tentative launch date of “Early April”, so roughly a month from now. Today, according to the FCC in the United States, the HSPA+ and LTE BlackBerry PlayBook is a bit closer to seeing the light of day as it’s successfully passed through their approval process. No other details on the specs, but the “next-gen” PlayBook is expected to sport a 1.5GHz dual-core processor and NFC. The HSPA+ and LTE tablet would be able to work on any of the Big 3 carriers (Rogers, Bell, TELUS) and their sub-brands, plus regional carriers such as SaskTel and MTS.
RIM first announced the existence of the HSPA+ and LTE tablet a year ago. In their press release at the time they noted that “Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ:RIMM)(TSX:RIM) today announced plans to launch two additional BlackBerry 4G PlayBook tablets during the second half of 2011, featuring support for LTE and HSPA+ high speed wide area wireless networks.”
Hopefully the April date is true. More soon!
