HP has joined the ranks of netbook makers offering hardware discounts if customers sign up for two years of broadband activation. It knocks $1oo off its $449 HP Mini 1000 Mobile Broadband Series in exchange for what amounts to a $1,440 commitment for 24 months of broadband.

HP’s deal pales in comparison to Dell’s which lops $350 off its $444 Inspiron Mini 9 for largely the same deal.

These deals appear seductive and apply the razor blade/cell model to netbooks – give away the hardware and sell the service. But mobile broadband is damned expensive at $60 a month. It’ll also be interesting to see if generous hardware rebates will creep up into notebooks.

I had  company-provided Sprint mobile broadband at my last job and while reliable, it was slow…much slower than Wifi and cabled Internet. It worked well at home in New England,  but  not outside the country.