Technocrat

Largest Cell Operator in Russia and Microsoft to offer Subsidised Laptops

zogger
Sat Feb 16 17:34:08 -0800 2008
Computers.
manage

The largest mobile phone operator in Russia, Mobile TeleSystems, is partnering with Microsoft to offer subsidized cheap laptops with a subscription model to customers there. The laptops-price and plan details not announced yet-will come stock with Vista and mobile internet access.

.."MTS and Microsoft are focused on making mobile broadband PCs relevant, affordable and accessible to all MTS subscribers with the offering first planned for roll-out in metropolitan areas in Russia before extending to other countries across the region. This service offering follows Microsoft’s and MTS’ support of the GSMA mobile broadband computing initiative to drive adoption of mobile broadband services by mass-market PC buyers...".and so on there at the press release. Hey! This is a one laptop per customer project....

ed: I know the subsidized cellphones deal is quite common in the US, with a two year contract typically, but do any of the wireless telecoms here offer a laptop?

Largest Cell Operator in Russia and Microsoft to offer Subsidised Laptops
Roy Schestowitz
Sat Feb 16 21:21:24 -0800 2008
 manage
Interesting timing. Government dept. and some schools are moving to GNU/Linux. They probably need to get people 'addicted' to Vista fast, to use Gates' word (addicted).
Largest Cell Operator in Russia and Microsoft to offer Subsidised Laptops
galo
Sun Feb 17 07:08:35 -0800 2008
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In my country (Portugal) we have a very similar deal, available to all students and teachers in high school, which is subsidized by the cellphone/mobile ISP companies, the government and probably Microsoft, where you can get a laptop for 150 euros with a contract for 2 years for the mobile internet access with a nice discount from the usual monthly fees, from several well known laptop manufacturers (HP, Toshiba), and pretty decent machines also (Core Duo, 1 Gb RAM, the only downside is they all have integrated graphics cards), of course they all come with Windows Vista Home Premium as well.  
Largest Cell Operator in Russia and Microsoft to offer Subsidised Laptops
Mathinker
Mon Feb 18 04:17:34 -0800 2008
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I'm curious. Is there any kind of lock-in, either contractual or technical, which would prevent one from getting the laptop and simply using Linux? Does the laptop use a wireless card with poor Linux support, for example (off-hand, the easiest way I can think of of doing that surreptitiously)?
 

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