Orange has become the latest ISP to offer a free laptop with its mobile broadband package.
As of Saturday, customers who sign up to the Internet Everywhere mobile broadband package from Orange will be able to claim a free Asus EEE laptop 900 16GB – a crossover between the hugely popular 900 and 901 netbooks - which has a compact 8.9″ screen, 16GB of solid-state storage and weighs less than 1kg.
However, the “free” laptop comes with so many strings attached that you may prefer to wait till you can afford to buy one outright. The Orange deal commits you to paying £25 a month for two years, giving you 3GB of data each month, 300 texts on the EEE and a free 3G HSDPA modem. This is £10 a month more than their standalone package, and the contract lasts 6 months longer. That means you’re paying a total of £600 over the two years. A hefty sum considering the Asus Eee laptops start from only £179.99 in shops.
The figures may add up if you are considering opting for Orange Broadband anyway. However, for 3G internet on the move, the iPhone may well be a better investment.
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Christy Mccarthy said on 22 Aug 2008 at 4:05 pm #
I paid £299 for my Asus a month ago and then had a £15 mobile broadband plan on top of that…so had this offer existed then, I could have saved myself over £60….shame! In saying that, I love my Asus, so I’d recommend anyone to get it. This sounds like a decent deal to me
Daithi said on 22 Aug 2008 at 4:59 pm #
I think anyone would be crazy to sign up to a 2 YEAR £25 per month contract - with the rate at which mobile broadband prices are falling, it makes sense to keep commitments as short as possible. I signed up to 3’s £10 per month tarrif in Feburary, and then jsut last week I signed up to 02’s £45 per month iPhone tarrif. It was worth it for the iPhone alone - but now I get unlimited internet and email access on the phone, so my contract with 3 is already redundant!