Sprint has teamed up with mega-retailer Best Buy to sell a Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook for a buck, with a two-year service contract, reports C/Net.
Best Buy will also sell the same Netbook for Verizon Wireless and AT&T for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Without any service contract, the Netbook costs $389.99, according to Best Buy’s Web site.
Sprint’s 3G wireless service is $60 a month for 5GB of data monthly, so the cost of the 2 year service contract is $1,440. Sprint also offers a $39.99 Connection Plan for Corporate Liable accounts, providing 500 MB of data monthly. Customers pay 5 cents per for each additional megabyte of usage.
Verizon offers two tiers of data service. The $40 a month plan offers 250MB of data monthly. And the $60 a month plan offers a maximum of 5GB of data. With the current pricing, Verizon Netbook users can expect to spend $1,160 to $1,640 during the life of the contract for the service and Netbook, depending on which plan they choose.
AT&T’s DataConnect 2 year plan features netbook pricing from $99.99 to $349.99. Beside that, AT&T also offers two mobile DataConnect plans, including a 200MB plan for $40 per month and 5GB plan for $60 per month, plus it offers free access to AT&T’s 20,000 nationwide Wi-Fi hot spots.
Sprint, however, also offers the Clear Spot, a battery operated Wi-Fi-enabled device ($139). It uses a $50 WiMAX dongle — for $30-$50/month. No contract. You can also use the dongle at home for unlimited, 6 Mbps service.
The CLEAR Spot router, manufactured by CradlePoint, has WiMAX compatibility built in. It uses a 3G or WiMAX dongle for backhaul.
The 3G/4G USB Modem U300 is the first device that provides access to both EVDO and WiMAX networks. It is also compatible with HSDPA. Sprint’s 3G/4G data card offers combined EVDO/WiMAX service for $80 a month, about $20 more a month than its 3G (EVDO) data service. Plugged into a Clearspot at home, it could also eliminate DSL costs. Sprint has launched WiMAX networks in Baltimore, Portland, Atlanta and Las Vegas.
