Smart move by AT&T. Scares the heck out of me though to think of the phone companies driving into the computer market. Imagine having to buy 2 year contracts with your future laptops or desktops

200 MB for $40 a month is ridiculous even for AT&T. Their unlimited data plan for phones are that much.

"200 MB plan for $40 per month or a 5 GB plan for $60 per month"

Way to make only one option. Seriously 200mb? What is this 28.8k? Make sure your browser doesn't display pictures so called web 2.0 can kill your 200mb in 1 hour.

Very generous of them to give you a $150 discount off of your netbook in exchange for $1440 of monthly fees.

Didn't someone offered a netbook with a 2 years contract for $0.99 last month? I beleived it was Best Buy and Sprint or something...

Woh... $199 (after mail in rebate)... saves you a whopping hundred bucks off buying one new that you'd own free and clear immediately instead of 2 years later. WHAT A STEAL... I'M GOING TO JUMP ON THAT RIGHT NOW.

Alright! For only $40 a month I can surf the web for a couple of hours before I reach my bandwidth limit. What a steal. Well worth the $100 off for the laptop.

Fuck this...

Here in the Netherlands your handset is nearly always free with a 2 year plan and for some time now if you buy a mobile internet plan from KPN Vodafone or TMobile you can chose a 3G enabled laptop/netbook in stead of a handset and in some cases even both (with a dual sim option).

I bet AT&SHIT are drooling over this. This know that there are many, well.... shit load of dumb ass people who will get suckered into this. Just look how they did with the Iphone. 200mb for $40/mo is plane and simple a rip off. How can they justify price??!! Are AT&T wireless networks so bad that they would rather give a pricey plan that's worth peanuts, in terms of service, so that later they can complain that their lines are congested due to excessive bandwidth that they can justify their prices. AT$T and the other damned companies alike all have the recourse's and money to upgrade their systems but they do that at a snails pace. They know it is more profitable to charge people more money for a shity services than upgrading their system which in theory would resolve the heavy bandwidth problem, but if that happene they would no longer have a reason to overcharge....oh darn. I fucking hate this so damn much. If only the common people were smarter they would stop giving into this scam. I feel really sorry for the people who aren't tech savvy like the rest us, well some of us, that will get suckered into this.

And on the fastest network in the world bit ... good luck with that i got a 3/0.5 meg connection for 15 euro a month flat fee no limitations which beats being fast any day in my humble opinion.

Blah, unimpressive measures on the part of AT&T. If they offered a $200 netbook with 100gb cap per month and 3-5mpbs internet service then maybe I'd think about it. Otherwise, it is not very compelling. There are better deals elsewhere. NEXT!

200 MB plan for $40 per month

Nice, last time I tried to use Sprint for dial-up and not their DSL, they stopped offering phone service! And they were the only carrier in my area!

How much do you get charged for going over your limit ? ;-)

Over limit fees for Sprint and Verizon Wireless are 0.05USB/MB - so I figure AT&T should be competitive.

Great use for netbooks. Mobile road warriors who are given a corporate netbook that is locked down and for email/connecting to a corporate database will find 5GB decent. Sure, you can't watch netflix every night (went on a 1 week vacation and burned through 3GB watching 3-4 hours a night for 5 days).

However, just try to make me get rid of my mobile broadband. Anywhere I want to go that has cell phone coverage, and I get internet. Great when traveling to look at lowestgasprices.com, weather.com, and so much more. Full browser is easier to use than Opera mobile or Skyfire. Netbooks may have wimpy processors, but they are much better than what you get in a smartphone.

Finally, don't forget AT&T customers get free access to wifi hotspots. So, you really only need the mobile broadband in a pinch.

However, I'll skip this. I have my cradlepoint PHS300, and since 2.3 it works with my omnia. Nothing like being in the car and letting a bunch of friends look up on the internet things to do while traveling (or check their email, or whatever). I don't mind paying a premium for the convenience - after all, I don't make my own butter and eat out sometimes at restaurants because it is convenient!

Ouch, that's bad. In the UK you can get a Dell Inspiron Mini & 1GB per month with a 24 month contract for £20 ($33). Or £25 ($41) per month for 3GB. AT&T are charging an insane amount. How much do they charge for regular broadband without a laptop?

Here you can get 15gb for £15 ($25) per month with a 24 month or 1gb for £10 per month on a pay-as-you-go deal, which is what I've got. If I'm ever somewhere where I'd buy wifi access, I instead buy £10 worth of mobile broadband credit giving me mobile broadband for the month.