No Nokia E71 for Now, Says AT&T

AT&T was reported a few days ago to finally be on its way to releasing the long expected Nokia E71 on its airwaves, yet it seems that the carrier won't make the move this time either. And it seems that this delay won't be a short one – the device won't be spotted in the operator's offering until a good eight weeks from now.

At the same time, it looks like the handset is also expected to come with a new firmware version as soon as it finally arrives with AT&T. There are no specific details on what the exact problems might be, yet it seems that they are somehow connected to the email/Mail for Exchange syncing. In case the Nokia E71 indeed has this kind of issues, then it would be safe to expect it to be launched no earlier than the end of May.

And while this is bad news for those who were expecting the handset to finally arrive to the carrier's lineup, there is also a bright side to it. It seems that the Finnish mobile phone maker intends to have the Nokia E71 on sale with a price tag of $149.99, after a mail-in rebate, at least this is what BGR reports.

The availability of the QWERTY keyboard handset at said price point might prove to become reality in the end, which is a good thing, for it might see some traction, meaning that it won't cost more than $150. One thing that we should still be looking after is the handset's launch date, which will hopefully not be too far in the future.

At the same time, given the fact that Nokia E71 is considered a smartphone, those who would like to purchase it should think about a data plan of $30.