The Battery life of the Bold is very dependant on its ability to be 'connected'.
It wants to be connected - no, it Needs to be connected.
Various radios give multiple connection points and all require power.
Some are more efficient than others as well as providing different access.
What is most problematic is the 3G/2G/Wifi management.
The Bold does an amazing job with that complexity when allowed to but...
Vendors Code the devices to function 'optimally' within their networks, not necessarily utilizing the capacity of the device.
ATT will tell the story of 'Rims first 3G device' and ATT tech will say ' an executive decision was made' - yeah right.
The bottom line is ATT has severely depreciated the Bold with their 'executive decision' to eliminate user network options.
End result may be poor battery life ,dropped voice calls, system resets when the device can't resolve network switching.
Who knows what the long term logic from ATT is but I imagine the short term solution may be to provide 2nd batteries with new purchases.