Cellular South joins the netbook craze

Cellular South has recently issued two netbook-related press releases.

First they announced they’ll start offering the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 netbook. No exact release date was given — all we got is “soon.” Those not familiar should know that the Mini 10 comes with 10.1-inch screen (16:9 aspect ratio), GPS receiver, WiFi connectivity support, embedded 3G modem (at least in the version Cellular South will sell), 160GB hard drive, 1 GB RAM, Windows XP Home edition, and an Intel Atom Z520 processor. The carrier will offer it for $199 on a two-year mobile broadband plan, which starts at $39.99 a month.

The second release talks about Cellular South’s “Netbook Design Challenge” contest, which runs through July 19, 2009. The idea here is to get some free PR by calling the carrier’s customers to design a wallpaper for the new netbook that incorporates the company’s corporate logo and colors in several different categories — including abstract art, sports, outdoors, old school and the future. Entries, which are limited to one per person per day, will be judged based on originality and creativity. Three weekly cash prizes of $250 will be awarded to contestants, and there’s also a $1,500 grand prize, along with a free netbook and one year’s worth of high-speed mobile broadband data service…