Instead of being stuck behind some A-hole driving 20 miles per hour under the speed limit while talking on his cell phone, you’ll soon be stuck behind a very similar A-hole trying to balance a laptop on his dashboard.
According to Twice.com, Chrysler’s parts division will begin selling “a Mopar car cellular/Wi-Fi hot spot, expected to be the first of many Internet offerings from the car companies” starting August 25th.
The hotspot device will be compatible with all 2009 Chrysler vehicles and certain earlier-year models. Customers will be able to order new cars with the device installed or bring compatible cars into Chrysler dealerships to have it retrofitted.
The router will cost $499 and will grab EVDO signals as well as WiMAX signals. The CEO of Autonet Mobile, the company that supplies the device to Chrysler, says that the router can be converted for use on all cellular networks. I’m assuming since Chrysler’s pushing EVDO, this will either be a Sprint or Verizon affair.
Interestingly, the monthly service charge will only be $29. That actually seems reasonable. Again, the device itself costs half a grand and you’ll need to fork over $35 to $50 for installation, followed by a $35 activation fee. The service will be sold by Chrysler as “Uconnect Web” starting at the end of the month.
From the looks of the picture, and the name “uconnect”, and the $35 activation fee this is 100% going to be through verizon.
It sounds like it’ll be through Sprint or Clearwire (which is basically Sprint + 5 other companies)…
WiMax + EVDO = Sprint or Clearwire
Well if it’s Verizon, I wonder what the catch is on this $29 plan. I just got their 5gb plan for $59 per month. The carriers will get their money either through higher hardware costs/lower monthly payments (see: apple’’s original iphone) OR lower hardware costs/higher monthly payments (see: apple’s iphone 3g).
The catch may be that the cap is much lower, only 1GB/month.
We’ll have to wait and see.