Can someone tell me how to access the speaker phone on the Blackberry 7290.?

Answer 1

If it is like my 7520, there is a button between M and "enter" that has a speaker on it and the word "SYM"

While I am connecting and during a call, I press that key and it switched to speaker. The screen shows a speaker in the upper left corner too.

I'm looking at a photo of your phone on blackberry.com and I can't tell what is on that key on your phone. I did a compare of your device and mine and yours doesn't have a built-in speaker phone. It DOES have Bluetooth for hands-free support. So you will have to buy a device to make it work.