We've been hearing wind of a new mobile broadband service coming next month from
Best Buy for a few days now, and it looks like the company went ahead and spilled the beans in its own Sunday flyer. The service offers a variety of tiers ranging from a contract-free 250MB per month for $30 all the way up to 5GB monthly on a 24 month contract for $60 a month. Interestingly, 5GB monthly contract-free costs the same $60 monthly -- you just get the $35 activation fee waived. At this point we don't know what the hardware looks like, but we're told Sprint is providing those bits and bytes wirelessly and that this new service will work with 4G. The employee news image after the break indicates that Connect will be launching on July 11 in all but 75 of the company's stores. Sometimes living out in the country is a drag.
Update: We got a note from Shaun indicating that there will actually not be any modems offered by Best Buy for this service, rather it will only be offered on GOBI-equipped laptops. Additionally, Shaun indicates the service will
not work with 4G, but that's contrary to some earlier intel we received, so hopefully BBY goes ahead and clarifies all this soon enough.
[Thanks, Jameil and Tyler]
posted June 28th 2010 8:12AM
250MB for 30 dollars? These companies are on crack with these tier prices.
@Synergi I'm betting this is running on 3G/4G so those 250MB *might* only apply for 3G, but who knows...
@Vdek
Even still. 250MB for 30 dollars? 60 dollars for 5? This isn't empowering the world, its empowering their bottom line with more of my money for less service.
I agree with the ridiculousness. That's 12 cents a megabyte.
With hard drives costing around 10 cents a gigabyte, I'm paying over 10 times as much to retrieve bytes than it takes me to store them.
@Synergi
For $20 a month, one could get the same 250 Mb from Virgin Mobile Broadband2Go.
Even at that price, it's still too high.
@Synergi
Took the words out of my mouth. I was expecting Best Buy to release some incredibly competitive pricing as a way to enter the market, but $30 for 250mb, that is laughable at most. I could use that in one day listening to Pandora.
@zerotwone
Even scarier, what happens when you go over 250mb. Are you charged another 30 bucks? These plans are seriously getting stupid. They are charging you more NOT to use your 3G/4G services.
Sad part is they're using Sprint's prices. They charge the same so it's kind of pointless to argue either way on the outrageous prices:
* $60 a month for 5GB
* $50 a month for 1GB extra (0.05mb*1000MB)
@JosephZ I (and many) don't submit to this price tier for mobile Internet so yes, it is outrageous. Who actually pays these prices and what's the deal with limiting things to 5GB! This is one area where these companies are out of control.
@dilloff
3G airwaves aren't unlimited? That could be a pretty good reason....
Oh I'm sure some idiots will pay it. These broadband prices should be coming down for gods sake.
"Empowering the connected world"
What total and utter marketing bullshit.
Connect "anytime, anywhere"?
Good luck with that CDMA modem in Europe.
Leave it to Best Buy to introduce something everyone has been doing for the past decade.
Hmm... looks to be on par with Verizon's prices, with no contract to boot (for a $35 activation fee).
Wish the prices were a bit more competitive, $60 is ridiculous.
It runs off dynex towers lol
@Cokemanpac
For an extra $5/mo you can upgrade to not quite as shitty Insignia towers!!
I will stick to my CLEAR wimax. It's $40 for either home or on the go service and $55 for both. There is no 5gb cap ... Unlimited ... I get 3-6mb per second down and .5mb per sec up. There is a $5 per device lease fee too but is still a better deal than cell carriers.
@darthgault You got that right. I'm on clear 4G only. I'm also noticing that Clear is expanding which is good! Still have a ways to go but I can't imagine not having it now. We're really, really fortunate to have Clear in our neck of the woods!
@darthgault Thats if you live in a 4g area, which the majority of us don't.
@Versed
that was kind of my point .... i am lucky i live where there is alternatives like clear ... cricket is $40 for the same service as verizon here too is you dont mind the GIANT usb thing sticking out the side of your laptop
Utterly ridiculous pricing, everyone should avoid this scam.
I'm so sick of people posting confidential information from employee news
@bcroft: I have to agree with you on this. Leaks like this are the reason that companies enact strict policies regarding information flow and they end up keeping people out of the loop.
The people who pay these are offices with employees who travel, where hotel broadband runs upwards of $10/day. While the business friendly hotels like the Hilton brands and Marriott business brands offer free wifi and internet, most "city hotels" The prices are ridiculous, but I bet that these will be pitched strongly to businesses and industries with a lot of travel.
@The Albatross Oops, got interrupted. I was going to say, most "city hotels" still charge exorbitant rates for a Wifi signal that is beamed out of the lobby... where you get 2 bars on the 5th floor and then you're S.O.L. anywhere higher.
@The Albatross
I pay 60 bucks a month, but I'm still on a legacy contact with alltel which is TRULY UNLIMITED data. I pray my alltel air card never breaks.
Don't know why everyone is arguing about price, but all the major carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint) are offering the same service for the same price with the same limitations. Arguing that the prices are high JUST for Best Buy is ridiculous. It's not for everyone, agreed, but I'd be terrified if it was 3G unlimited in today's world... the network would be so condensed and jammed with people doing crazy downloads it would unbearable to use on ANY network. Hence why those 5GB limits exist.
@michbeck
Seeing that EVDO is somewhat but not quite pn par with hsdpa, the lower fee is high the upper one isn't.
Wow, guys get SCREWED
3Contract
http://threestore.three.co.uk/broadband/
Most expensive, 15GB @ £20/month (18month contact) or £15 for 24 months!
3 Pay as You Go
http://threestore.three.co.uk/payg/?modem=1
Most expensive deal, 12GB for £79.99 - $120.54(ish) (Pre Paid, lasts for 12 Months)
I'd boycott them tbh, or move somewhere with great free public WiFi
I thought Sprint offered an unlimited 3G data plan with 450 anytime calling minutes and unlimited cell phone to cell phone calls for $69.99 a month. Can't you just tether to that or is there some other charge I'm missing here? Either way, $60 for 5GB is outrageous.
Do not support this fail. Those prices are just ridiculous.
Best Buy and Virgin Mobile both get the data from Sprint so the service is going to be the same. However the pricing is a fair bit different:
Best Buy:
$30 - 250 MB
$40 - 500 MB
$60 - 5 GB
Virgin Mobile:
$10 - 100 MB (Expires after 10 days)
$20 - 300 MB
$40 - 1 GB
$60 - 5 GB
There is no reason whatsoever to use Best Buy over Virgin Mobile. If you are using 5 GB a month, then it is the same price but at any other plan, Virgin is drastically cheaper. Also, all of Virgins plans are no contract and I'm fairly sure there is no activation fee.
Wow, this + Google Voice = Bye Bye AT&T/Verizon
@dementedacademic
your kidding right?!
I hate having tier pricing for Internet services and cell service. It should be unlimited data and voice for one price. Since just about every one has a cell phone and are using the Internet more and more. It is just to suck as much money out of us as they can. If the cell and broadband providers are worried about every one overloading the networks and using to much data then they should have been working on upgrading the services in the past and not scramble to work on it now. They want to charge more and more for services and spend less and less in return. The tell us we have to cut back and use less. I live out in the sticks and I only get EDGE from AT&T. And my Internet provider I only get 1.5meg down and 384meg upload. I do not have cable or DSL on my road.
I'd actually like to see a wireless broadband service that has an option to charge per megabyte instead of a monthly fee. It would be a good backup option in case my primary connection goes down. But I don't want to pay $30/month for a backup option.
when did bandwidth become such a commodity?!
What is wrong with the US carriers? Here in Denmark I have a 2 Mbit 3G connection with a 10 GB cap. I pay 18 dollars per month, I get 2 Mbit download and 0.3 upload. Not cheap enough? My carrier has a summer offer with free internet until 2010-09-01 - yes thats right I pay nothing for my 3G connection the next 2 months.
@evilguy
We have greedy jew as CEOs for our 3g companies. :(
the thing that will change is that you do get something out of paying your bill. Rewards points!
That is 60 points a month.. after 5 months you'll get $5.
so technically you only pay $59 a month.
Best Buy Connect is another example of why Best Buy is actually Crap Buy.
So I mean- All other carriers-Sprint, AT&T, Verizon all charge the same for the same thing- So whats different- Yes the prices are a little high but the same as all other carries- However as an employee there was talk of an unlimited plan- but talk is talk- Im not defending Best Buy, but I am saying no reason to attack when everyone charges the same- And as of right now not sure who they are using - They think possibly att or sprint- but who knows at this point- But awesome that its all embedded instead of using a stupid side card that seems to bend and break.