Verizon, Sprint, and Blackberry had a pretty big present for American Blackberry fans who travel with their devices yesterday. Verizon and Sprint both announced that they would soon carry the Blackberry 8830, a device modeled on the popular Blackberry 8800 which neither Verizon or Sprint currently offer. The 8830 will include all of the popular features of the 8800, including the revamped interface that came with the Blackberry Pearl, the removal of the thumb-wheel in favor of the trackball, and the ability to play back music and video - all of which are firsts in Blackberry devices supported by Verizon and Sprint.

The feature that makes the Blackberry 8830 truly stand out from the crowd is that it's a global device, and supports both CDMA (the network type that Verizon and Sprint currently use and is used primarily in the United States) and GSM, (the network type that the majority of cellular networks in the rest of the world use), which will allow 8830 users to travel freely from country to country and still be able to use Blackberry services like push e-mail, Web browsing, and more. The device will use Verizon and Sprint's CDMA EVDO for high-speed data transfer and Web surfing, but if an 8830 user should ever travel to Europe, for example, the device reportedly will switch to GSM in order to make calls and send and receive data.

Additionally, each company is offering their own service and support plans to help users who do have to travel with their 8830s to get accustomed to moving around with it and get help if they have problems. Verizon Business customers will be able to get their hands on a Blackberry 8830 on May 14th, and everyone should be able to pick one up in a Verizon store after May 28th. Sprint's version of the 8830 is scheduled for release in July. Expect to lay down anywhere between $199 to $399 for a Blackberry 8830, depending on promotional rebates or contract pricing. PCMag mobile phone guru Sascha Segan has a more in-depth report on the unveiling at PCMag.com.