‘Free’ Laptops the Latest 3G Lure

First it was mobiles for nothing, now it’s laptops for free, as telcos try to lure customers into their often-expensive 3G mobile data plans. Telstra is offering a zero-dollar laptop to the value of $700 to business customers signing up for a three-year contract on the telco’s Next G mobile data service. But as with $0 phones, there is a catch. The plan costs $99 a month and includes a one-gigabyte data download allowance a month. Go over that limit and you are in for some hefty excess data charges