Comments on: Should mobile operators sell laptops?

By: Maciek

Maciek — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 21:03:58 +0000

Include Poland in it too..Three out of four operators are doing it.

To Rex…Actually you’re wrong…you get the laptop and you are forced to PAY FOR, not USE the data so it’s even better for the operator if you use WiFi instead of 3/3.5G as you’re not sucking down on the precious bandwidth. Either way you still have to pay for the data plan you sign up for…the same way you do with a phone..you sing up to get a freebie, you are locked in for two or so years. The operator doesn’t give a damn if you pop a different sim card as long as you pay for the contract you signed up for. You stop – you pay the ETF – that’s all. The only downfall is that the laptops they provide are on the lower side of the scale.

By: Topy

Topy — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:57:53 +0000

” But support and other expertice will often be lost at the typical supermarket style phoneshop…”
Indeed.

By: TobEng

TobEng — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:13:41 +0000

This is already very common in Sweden.

Sure this is a great operatunity for resellers who deal both in mobilphones/mobile-broadband and computers. But support and other expertice will often be lost at the typical supermarket style phoneshop…

By: Chris P

Chris P — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:37:15 +0000

I believe this is already happening in the UK – you can get £300 off any laptop if you sign up to an 18 month ‘3′ mobile internet contract.

By: Rex

Rex — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 12:56:35 +0000

Hah!
Going by the past behavior of US mobile operators, you can bet they’ll disable everything and make it only work with a data connection supplied by them

And even otherwise..this also begs the questions-
Should the transport authority sell cars?
Should the electricity company sell appliances?

Let service providers stick to doing just that and leave the rest upto their customers-it’s called sticking to one’s core competence.