Netbooks are designed to work over the Internet. That assumes persistent broadband—which, as anyone who's tried to find a hotspot on the go can attest to, can be a tricky thing. But as Wired reports, more and more netbooks may come with built-in WWAN radios—that is, if buyers are willing to pony up $60 per month to activate them.

Acer, Radio Shack, and AT&T have taken the usual cellular modem idea a step further by requiring a contract with their latest subsidized netbook. The Acer Aspire One costs only $99 up front but requires a two-year agreement (just like a cell phone). It features an 8.9-inch screen, an Intel Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard disk.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the report called the move "technological wizardry," given that the three companies figured out how to charge consumers $1500 for a $350 device without changing a single piece of hardware. "It is interesting move," said Bob O'Donnell, a vice president at IDC, in the article. "But it won't make a huge dent in the marketplace right away. The price points they are available today are way too high for most people."

It's even worse than it looks. Unlike with cellular cards or modem tethering, you can't move the modem from machine to machine; that hefty $60-per-month fee is only good for the netbook in question.