Word is spreading that the Blackberry Bold’s “latest ETA” to your local AT&T store is now October 27, 2008. According to several web sites this latest launch date estimate is contained in an internal email to AT&T stores. While there hasn’t been any official announcement concerning what the delay was all about (Canada and overseas carriers have had their Bold’s for quite some time) the leading rumor via Crackberry.com is that AT&T had to beef up their network in the USA to prevent a Bold inspired bandwidth crunch.

The issue is with the AT&T 3G Network. The Bold uses Multi PDP context in its data communications and the AT&T network is not optimized for it. It requires a 2-stage network software upgrade by its 3G vendor, Ericsson. Only 30% of the network is upgraded completely and the rest is still pending. If the device is launched without these upgrades the network will suffer bandwidth crunch and speeds would have to be capped at 128kbps! The Tri-State region is one of the market areas that is still in line for the upgrade which makes sense based on your experience with your Bold in NYC.

This upgrade effort is high priority and slotted to complete by Oct 31st. Nov 1st week is the planned launch timeframe for the Bold and with the latest firmware the BlackBerry Bold is a rock solid device, despite what you may have heard elsewhere.

And we have lift off: AT&T Bold launches on the 27th and Crackberry