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As promised, regional CDMA carrier Alltel has started offering the BlackBerry Pearl 8130 in time for the holiday season. In related news, another regional operator, SunCom Wireless (bought by T-Mobile a couple of months back), has become the first to sell RIM's newest BlackBerry Pearl model, the 8120, for operators that use GSM technology for their wireless networks.

You can now buy Pearl 8130 (see top image)_from Alltel for $150 after a $100 mail-in rebate. As for SunCom, it is selling its new Pearl smartphone for $220 with a two year agreement.

For over a year, you could only get the BlackBerry Pearl through GSM carriers like T-Mobile and AT&T Wireless, leaving customers of operators like Verizon Wireless, Sprint and Alltel out of luck; that changed this fall when RIM introduced the Pearl 8130.

This Pearl supports CMDA carriers’ EV-DO 3G data networks, far faster than the 2.5G EDGE technology used by Pearls from GSM operators. It also integrates GPS technology to support location-based services.

While SunCom's 8120 (see image below) does not correct these omissions (no 3G or GPS), it does add Wi-Fi and make a number of other improvements, such as RIM making the expansion slot more accessible to users and bumping the digital camera to 2 megapixels from the first Pearl model's 1.3 shooter, over its predecessor.

Rumor has it SunCom parent company T-Mobile won't pick up the 8120 until mid February; the better to get more of the previous model out the door, it would seem. When the operator does, the smartphone will support its Hotspot @Home service, just like the Wi-Fi-enabled BlackBerry Curve 8320 does.

The Pearl 8120 like the Curve is a dual-mode device through support for the UMA (unlicensed mobile access) standard. Hotspot @Home allows for the seamless handoff of voice or data calls between T-Mobile's cellular network and Wi-Fi, at home or at a T-Mobile hotspot.

In addition to SunCom in the U.S., the Pearl 8120 can be found abroad in Singapore, the U.K., Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, India, Italy, Spain, and parts of Latin America.

See links below for more on both new BlackBerry Pearls: Alltel's 8130 and SunCom's 8120.