Subsidized netbooks and the kill pill
Posted in: Netbook, components, tags: 3g, AT&T, kill pill
Many phone companies now a days, as an incentive to go for that deal and network offer a free gift as part of, usually a longer contract. The freebies can range from DS Lites, to PS3s and not forgetting netbooks. But what happens when the customer doesn’t pay their phone bill? Usually the customer gets a high priced goody which they can still use, even if their phone use is limited. This seems set to change though with the introduction of the “kill pill”. The kill pill can send a signal out to the netbook’s modem, to shut the netbook down, effectively making the netbook useless according to Ericsson.
US carrier AT&T as well as other 3G network carriers elsewhere will have this module installed. Associated Press however, think that carriers will be reluctant to use this technology, but the technology is there for it to happen.
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It looks like we’re getting the “trusted” computing platform (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing ) through a back door. Think about it. The only way to implement the “kill pill” is to implement the all the basics of the TC platform. Otherwise it will be a siple update (of OS, BIOS etc) for the user to get rid of it.