BlackBerry Priv Headed To T-Mobile: Release Date Reported As Jan. 26

AT&T started selling the BlackBerry Priv in the U.S. from November. This handset can also be purchased from the Canadian tech giant’s official Website, B&H Photo Video and Wal-Mart. Meanwhile, a new report said that T-Mobile could soon be offering this retro-styled slider phone.

As it turns out, a regular reader of Phone Arena picked up T-Mobile’s internal work calendar specific to January 2016 with impending activities. In the calendar, the day “Jan. 26” has been marked as “BlackBerry Venice launch.”

If you are wondering how is this name related to BlackBerry Priv, “Venice” is the code name of the slider phone. This means, the Android Lollipop powered BlackBerry Priv with physical QWERTY keyboard might land in T-Mobile’s Website in a matter of weeks. Readers should however note that neither BlackBerry nor T-Mobile has confirmed this news.

Apart from AT&T and T-Mobile, a Verizon version also visited the FCC. Following which, the carrier officially tweeted that the Priv is “coming soon.”

Speaking of price, the Priv is currently being sold for $699. However, recently, BlackBerry CEO John Chen said, the handset might get a price cut in the timeframe of MWC 2016 event.

This is mainly due to the fact that many new devices will be introduced during the event and hence, it makes sense for the Canadian tech giant to slash the price as Priv’s configurations with respect to processor and software will be outdated by then. It is worth noting that the MWC 2016 event has been scheduled between Feb. 22 and Feb. 25 in Barcelona.

Check out Chen’s own words about the possible price reduction: “In about Mobile World Congress time, we will see introduction of new technology from our competitors. We have may be a midlife kicker coming in around that time, but I expect ourselves to have to reduce our price to be competitive.”