Optus and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced the UMTS-enabled BlackBerry 8707g for customers in Australia.

The BlackBerry 8707g features popular and proven BlackBerry functionality including support for "push" email, phone, text messaging, organizer, browser and other corporate data applications. The handset can be also used as a tethered modem, providing customers with the ability to access the Internet from their laptops.

Together with Optus' UMTS network, the BlackBerry 8707g allows users to simultaneously send and receive email, browse the Internet and use other applications while speaking on the phone, even while the handset is being used as a tethered modem.

Featuring a full QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry 8707g operates on 2100 MHz UMTS networks and also includes quad-band support on 850/900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS networks. The handset features 64 MB flash memory and supports attachment viewing of popular file formats (including JPEG, BMP, TIFF, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, Corel WordPerfect and Adobe PDF).

The high resolution QVGA (320x240) LCD display on the BlackBerry 8707g supports more than 65,000 colors and it incorporates intelligent light sensing technology that automatically adjusts the display and keyboard brightness to optimize visibility in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.