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Sprint Nextel has begun shipping a new version of the popular BlackBerry device designed to take advantage of its Power Vision mobile broadband network.

The company will also upgrade an earlier version of the BlackBerry to take advantage of the network later in 2006.

The BlackBerry 7130e, as delivered by Sprint, will be able to download information across the mobile broadband network at average speeds of 400 to 700K bps, with speeds as high as 2M bps possible in some areas.

The new device will come with software support for a variety of graphical file types.

Click here to read more about Lotus applications for BlackBerry devices.

In addition, the 7130e will support Bluetooth, and it will act as a modem for laptop computers. The 7130e sells for $199.99 after all discounts and promotions.

Sprint also announced May 31 that the company will begin software upgrades of the BlackBerry 7250 handheld wireless device so that it will work with Sprint’s Power Vision mobile broadband network.

The online update will be for customers who purchased the 7250 before May 1. Devices sold after that date are already capable of using the Power Vision network.

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