The US mega-retailer, Best Buy has teamed up with AT&T, Sprint and Verizon cell phone network operators in a bid to offer the Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook for 99 cents with a two-year service contract. 

The condition is that a Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX must be bought with a two year Sprint 3G wireless-broadband service-contracts that charges $60 a month for 5GB of data downloads. The $40 a month plan offers 250MB of data monthly. In addition you will have to pay $1,440 sales tax on the netbook’s $389.99 list price.

Hence, Verizon Netbook users will have to spend $1,160 to $1,640 during the time span of the contract for the service and Netbook.

The Compaq Mini 110c-1040DX Netbook possesses a 1.6GHz processor and 160GB hard drive. Other features include 5-in-1 media reader, a built-in webcam and three U.S.B. 2.0 ports.

Netbooks’ popularity is on the increase these days for carriers that are looking to get consumers using their wireless data services. 

However, the rational consumers will definitely mull over whether they really require spending more than $1,000 for these netbooks when these devices and laptops can be had at very nominal prices.