Sprint Offers $0.99 Netbook With 2-Yr. Data Plan
While AT&T and Verizon Wireless currently offer the HP-Compaq Mini 110c for $199 with a 2-year data plan, Sprint has teamed up with Best Buy in order to sell the machine for just $0.99 with a 2-year agreement on the company's "Now Network." If one were to buy this machine straight-out, you'd pay $389.99, but before you whip out the credit card for that sub-$1 charge, take a look at the full costs.
The 2-year agreement means that you'll be paying $60 per month to Sprint for mobile data on the netbook, and you'll be capped at 5GB per month. Also, the 3G card is built-in to the netbook, meaning that you can't transfer service to any other machine. All told, you'll spend over $1440 for the netbook + data, and while it's certainly a good way to get this combination, we'd prefer buying a free-after-rebate 3G data card that can be used on any machine. Not to mention that netbooks should get a lot more powerful as soon as Windows 7 and Chrome OS come out.