Not such a good deal, after all?

The other day I blogged about AT&T's $50 netbooks. I was considering going this route when they came to my town... Until I saw the data plans.

A $60 monthly plan buys you 5 GB of data transfer a month. If that sounds okay to you, consider that until fairly recently you could get unlimited data transfer for the same price through AT&T's (then Cingular's) EDGE service, which you accessed with your regular laptop via a PCMCIA card.

If you don't want to pay so much a month, your only other option is a $40 monthly plan that gives you 200 MB of data transfer per month — hardly enough to check email, yet it's two-thirds the price! Bet you can guess which plan they want you to pick...

It's times like this when my sense of fairness steps in and says Uh-uh, no way. If I decide to get a netbook, it will be at the regular price — and with no chains attached!