AT&T Mobility announced a new partnership with Lenovo and Ericsson, which the carrier says could reduce the price of an HSPA-embedded laptop by as much as $150, making it comparable to laptops that are not embedded. AT&T spokesperson John Kampfe would not confirm that AT&T is subsidizing the laptops, but said that the company believes that by bringing down the upfront costs, it is eliminating a barrier to adoption.
The HSPA modules, which are made by Ericsson, will be embedded in a range of Lenovo Thinkpad laptops, and will allow consumers to automatically connect to AT&T's LaptopConnect service. AT&T will provide 30 days of free DataConnect service. In third quarter earnings, AT&T reported that wireless data revenues were up more than 50 percent. In addition, over the past year the company has doubled the number of LaptopConnect customers.
For more:
- see this release [1]
Related Articles:
Some AT&T [2] laptop customers get free WiFi
Orange [3] runs out of laptops, now offers free broadband deal
Links:
[1] http://www.fiercewireless.com/press-releases/t-lenovo-ericsson-break-new-ground-new-embedded-laptop-pricing
[2] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/some-t-laptop-customers-get-free-wi-fi/2008-05-22
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/europe/story/orange-runs-out-laptops-now-offers-free-broadband-deal/2008-10-24