AT&T is expanding its trial of netbook sales distribution to retail stores nationwide.
Ralph de la Vega, head of AT&T’s consumer business, told Reuters on Tuesday that the phone company would sell netbooks from Dell, Acer and Lenovo Group starting this summer.
Previously, AT&T Mobility only sold netbooks at its own stores in Atlanta and Philadelphia and retailers RadioShack and Costco. De la Vega echoed a message he gave to journalists and analysts at the CTIA show in April: "We're taking broadband and really making it mobile," de la Vega said at the Reuters Global Technology Summit in New York.
Also at the summit, de la Vega said AT&T is considering offering cheaper data service plans with limited Web surfing for advanced cell phones, including the Apple iPhone.
de la Vega said it would be costly for AT&T to cut the price of its unlimited Web surfing service, which currently costs at least $70 for iPhone users. Instead, AT&T could offer more limited Web surfing on cell phones for a lower fee, similar to its trial offer of 200 megabytes of data downloads for wireless netbook users for $40 a month in Atlanta and in Philadelphia, according to Reuters.