Following on the recent announcement from RIM that China’s government gave the green-light to bring the outdated BlackBerry 8700 to the Chinese masses, China Mobile has announced that they will be launching the BlackBerry 8700 by month’s end. TCL Communications, the Chinese manufacturer of RIM’s BlackBerry 8700 said that they’ve gotten an order for 10,000 BlackBerry 8700 handsets from China Mobile, which will be sold under the “Alcatel BlackBerry 8700″ branding. TCL owns the Alcatel brand and helped RIM push certification of the BlackBerry 8700 through the Chinese beauracracy. The Alcatel BlackBerry 8700 will presumably be used with China Mobile’s existing BlackBerry wireless plans (available for BlackBerry handsets from abroad). There are two plans offered by China Mobile - one costs RMB 398 ($53.8) per month and the other will run RMB 598 ($80.8) per month. We’re sure Chinese businessmen will be happy to hear that they can now get an official BlackBerry 8700 from China Mobile. You know, instead of the more advanced BlackBerry handsets that could just as easily be brought in from, say, the US. [Via: MocoNews ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:RIM to bring the BlackBerry to Russia in 2008BlackBerrys finally ready for ChinaAnother RIM BlackBerry outage?BlackBerry 8830 on Sprint next month?Meizu M8 MiniOne to debut at CES? Apple's lawyers rejoice!

Welcome to the age of the CrackBerry, Russia. We’re glad to hear that you’re finally getting with the times and letting RIM bring their heralded BlackBerry lineup within your borders, starting in 2008. Hey, you’ve caught up to Communist China ! With the Russian security agency’s (FSB) approval to let Russian wireless operators MTS and Vimpelcom carry the BlackBerry phones from RIM, carrier-branded BlackBerry handsets should be making their way into email-addicted Russian hands in Q1 2008. BlackBerries have been in use on MTS’s Ukraine network since October, but those handsets used foreign SIM cards as roaming handsets. This announcement marks the first legitimate entry of the BlackBerry into Russian wireless networks.  Vimpelcom has been greenlighted to sell 1,050 BlackBerry 8700 smartphones as soon as the handsets pass certification tests. MTS and Vimpelcom have a one-year sales window, so Russian could go back to the pre-BlackBerry dark ages in 2009 - although, we’re going to put our money on a long-lived Russian BlackBerry market. [Via: Reuters ] ---Related Articles at IntoMobile:RIM planning BlackBerry 8110 Pearl with GPS?Another RIM BlackBerry outage?RIM secures BlackBerry 9100 and 9300 domainsRIM to open BlackBerry APIs; Partners with GameloftRIM to launch iPhone-fighting BlackBerry 9000/9xxx early next year