“Free” Mobile Broadband... From NetZero

By -
Remember NetZero? Yeah, it's been a while. Free dial up internet hasn't been something you have been lusting for since Clinton was stumbling around the White House, but how about free wireless broadband?

NetZero offers free Wi-Fi 'teaser' service for 1 year – USATODAY.com

It works like this, across the top of your screen there will be a big banner ad... ok, kidding. It actually is not much of a gimmick. Running on the Clearwire network (which has been having trouble finding buyers other than Sprint), you pay either $50 for a USB modem or $100 for a wifi hotspot. You get 200mb/mo free, for one year. There are no overage charges - the data simply shuts off after 200mb and asks if you want to buy a plan.

So, is it a good deal? Well, not for me, because Android has tethering and I have unlimited data on Sprint. Even if I needed it, wifi hotspot over the phone is only $1/day... so paying $100 up front doesn't make a lot of sense.

On the other hand, for the sometime-traveler without tethering (*cough* iPhone *cough*), this could make a lot of sense - 200mb does not get you that far in a month, but it would be enough to get your email, especially with something like gmail.

After the first year, you can opt into a paying plan. All in all, not bad NetZero, not bad.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top 10 Ways to Not Suck at Driving

By -
Image
There are a lot of shitty drivers out there. Actually, most people are shitty drivers. They don't really know anything about cars, about driving, about limits of adhesion, how to react when things go badly, or what snow does to your ability to drive. In fact, most people think that driving slowly, regardless of what lane you are in, whether you are merging onto a highway or holding up 50 cars behind you, means "being a good driver." Just because you have spent many years driving in the left lane at 65mph does not make you a good driver, in fact, just the opposite. A good driver means you know how to drive, not that you have gotten lucky or simply average for the past 10 years. Personally, I would love to see a class in high school devoted to driving. I think it could be fun and informative while greatly reducing the number of accidents (especially fatal ones) on the roads every year. Right now, the driving exam is basically a joke, it means that you know what the pedals...
Read more

Doomsday Bunkers for What? "Preppers" Are Idiots

By -
Image
Recently I wrote about the 10 best doomsday survival shelters in the world . These make sense - they are for continuity of government, they are so mankind will survive, they are all about long-term planning or strategic defense. But, I just came across a brand new show on Discovery - "Doomsday Bunkers" - and it's stupid. Interesting, but stupid. It turns out that there is a whole community of people out there who believe Y2K is still coming think Fallout 3, the Book of Eli, or Mad Max is just around the corner. And so they are "prepping" - getting ready for the zombie apocalypse. The craziest of them - or perhaps just the most obsessive or those with the most money.... spend $50,000-$1,000,000 building underground bunkers to protect themselves from... something. Cozy... I hope you like Progresso   And that's where the idiocy comes in: they don't know what they are protecting themselves from. The vast majority of them are built to offer...
Read more