Monday, March 19, 2012

NetZero Goes 4G

Woodland Hills-based United Online, the parent company of Internet ISP NetZero, announced this morning that it has launched a new, 4G mobile broadband service called NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband. United Online said the new service will provide Internet service for laptops, iPads, and other tablet devices. The service will cover 80 cities nationwide, and will start at $9.95 per month. According to NetZero, all of its plans--including one which includes up to one year of free service--require the purchase of either a 4G hotspot or 4G USB "stick" device to access its network. The hotspot costs $99.95, and the USB modem costs $49.95. The new service is the first, new service push for NetZero in many years, which has mostly been milking the most it can out of a rapidly declining, dialup customer base. United Online is using Clearwire, the WiMAX network provider backed by Sprint, for the service. Clearwire and United Online inked a deal in November for the white label service.