Published December 13th, 2008
in Shopping Promotion.
Multiple sources confirm that AT&T and Radio Shack have teamed up to offer a subsidized version of Acer Aspire netbook for just $100 starting this coming Monday. To qualify you will need to sign up to a 2 year AT&T AirCard contract priced $60 a month or more.
The normal price of this netbook is $370 (here is one currently offered by Buy.com) and $60 a month will cost your many times more if you start summing up your monthly fee. So do your math before jumping in.
The significance of this event is in the fact that this is the first time a company to offer a subsidized notebook (something that has so far been the prerogative of cell phones) and symbolizes the convergence of these two types of devices.
As a G1 owner and a long time smart phone fan I am confident that these gadgets will eventually merge together. Will they have a virtual or foldable keyboard? Will they run Linux, Windows, or Jolicloud? These are all details but I am sure we will see that ultimate product within 5-10 years.
As for this particular deal, I love the convenience of fast internet on the go from a small factor laptop like this and I would certainly love to have the netbook as a Christmas gift (with the plan paid in advance please ;-) ). Practically though I am currently looking into tethering my G1 to use it as a proxy from a laptop. Not only the result is cheaper, the process itself is a lot of fun!
Sources:
Published June 19th, 2007
in Shopping Promotion.
This sounds like a hot deal for those of you looking for an inexpensive DSL internet access. It surfaced on Yahoo News that AT&T just made a new DSL plan available to new broadband internet customers. The plan offers download speed of up to 768 kbps and upload speed of up to 128 kbps for as low as $10 a month.
AT&T promotes the service as “DSL at a Dial-up price” and everyone with AT&T phone service still using dial-up will be a fool not to give this offer a try. The modem comes free. Local phone service and a one-year contract are required.
The offer is not currently listed among the available DSL options but you can see if this promotion will work for you by clicking “See if you qualify” under the “DSL at a Dial-up price” or by following this link to the promotion page.
Source: discussion thread at SlickDeals forums
Update: here are terms and conditions for this plan from BellSouth website. See the comments to this post for more details
Published February 17th, 2007
in Interesting / Other.
You might remember AllFreeCalls, the company I reviewed in January. They offered free international calls to a number of countries by taking advantage of a loophole in the complex laws regulating telcos.
Guess what, AT&T didn’t like the bill they had to foot for all those calls to Iowa and they sued AllFreeCalls, FuturePhone, and a number of other startups profiting from the scheme.
Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, Central Division, AT&T’s lawsuit seeks to stop FuturePhone as well as the telcos who provide local infrastructure from continuing with their operations that use regulatory-fee arbitrage and VoIP to provide international calls for only the price of a long-distance call to Iowa.
According to the company blog, AffFreeCalls is still fighting to get back in business while FuturePhone has already put up a big red “service not available” sign on their website.
I always thought it was a matter of time before these startups attract enough attention and the loophole is closed. For any idea to work it has to make sense and I just don’t see how a business like this could survive for long.
Oh well, easy come, easy go. We still have plenty of other alternatives with more solid business plans, and I am sure they will not evaporate overnight. ;-)
To find more about why it worked when it did read this detailed investigation from Alec Saunders: “What’s With the 712 Area Code?”
