It is official ladies and gentlemen, Canadian carriers Bell and Telus have launched their BlackBerry Storm smartphones.  Both Bell and Telus are offering the first full-touchscreen BlackBerry for $249 on a 3-year service agreement and are including the 8GB microSD card as seen on the Verizon Wireless version.  At the moment the online store has not updated, but keep your eyes peeled because if Bell suffers a similar inventory issue like the Telus rumors are predicting, it could be difficult locating a unit.  

According to current rumors there are only 2,500 units available for Telus customers, but of those 2,500 units they are all running the latest firmware v4.7.0.76.  This is the same firmware Verizon Wireless deployed to their BlackBerry Storm last Friday and we can personally vouch for serious performance improvements. If you are asking yourself why would Telus launch the Storm with only 2,500 units?  The answer is simple, Telus is only soft launching the device today to pick up a bit of steam before the full-scale launch in January.

Update: It looks like the Telus BlackBerry Storm is temporarily out of stock and “currently on backorder, please allow 1 to 2 weeks for delivery”