Working in conjunction with Clearwire, NetZero is taking aim at giants such as AT&T and Verizon. The dot-com survivor today announced NetZero 4G Mobile Broadband, a new service that’s running on the back of Clearwire’s 4G wireless network.
Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. NetZero is offering the service for free for up to one year if customers purchase a NetZero 4G HotSpot ($99.95) or 4G Stick ($49.95). It is also offering a premium service that provides more data for $19.95 per month. NetZero does not require a long-term contract, and it is touting the service as a more secure offering than free public Wi-Fi. With the 4G HotSpot, NetZero claims that up to eight Wi-Fi enabled computers can connect to the service.
As you can see in the chart below, NetZero believes its offering is cheaper than the big competitors.
The offering is part of a five-year wholesale deal that Clearwire and NetZero struck last fall, with United Online CEO Mark Goldston saying at the time that “mobile broadband service is the natural progression for the NetZero brand, which has always stood for bringing the highest quality, most affordable Internet access to consumers in the U.S.” United Online is the parent company of NetZero, and also operates the Seattle services Classmates.com and Memory Lane.
The NetZero service is available in more than 80 cities in the U.S., including Seattle, San Francisco and Washington D.C.
