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O2 becomes first UK Pearl hunter
Data tariffs for CrackBerry and cold turkey

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 07 September 2006

RIM has found the first taker for its new consumer targeted device, the BlackBerry Pearl.

O2 announced today it will begin offering the first thumbwheel-less BlackBerry from next month and has introduced two extra data tariffs for consumer data users.

The operator will introduce a pay-as-you-use data tariff, at £2.30 per MB before VAT, so users can avoid a monthly data subscription. For those squarely in the CrackBerry camp, there's an unlimited data add-on option, with price dependent on which other tariff the user has signed up to.

No other UK operators have yet committed to offering the service, although both Orange and T-Mobile have already announced they are planning to sell the device in other territories.