Verizon locking WiFi on Motorola Xoom until you buy one month of data service?

Call us crazy, but we’re having a hard time interpreting this line of fine print in any other way: “To activate WiFi functionality on this device, a minimum of one month data subscription is required.” That’s listed under Best Buy’s most recent ad highlighting the world’s first Android 3.0 tablet, and it most certainly sounds both ominous and ridiculous. Hardcore Verizon followers may remember the days of Big Red crippling Bluetooth radios in phones in order to “coerce” users to purchase ringtones and such from them rather than snagging one on the subway from Tom, Dick and / Jane, so we definitely wouldn’t put something like this by the company. It’s hard to say how this will be implemented once the $800 Xoom hits retail shelves, but it’s certainly hard to believe that this is a Best Buy policy (and not a Verizon mandate). We’ll be digging for more details, but we’ll be straight with you — we don’t like the potential implications here. At all . [Thanks, Michael] Verizon locking WiFi on Motorola Xoom until you buy one month of data service? originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 06 Feb 2011 20:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on February 7, 2011. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry