Verizon subsidized netbooks to come from HP

In March, Verizon representatives unofficially said that it could begin selling netbooks with nationwide broadband service as early as the second quarter 2009. Now, the company has said it will begin selling them on May 17.

For a moment, it looked like Verizon would follow AT&T's plan, and offer the Acer Aspire One netbook. At one point, Acer's brand name even showed up on the Verizon Wireless product page, though it was a dead link, and could potentially have correlated to another Acer product, such as its rebranded E-Ten smartphones.

Instead, or perhaps just until a deal is reached with Acer, Verizon will be selling the HP Mini-Note for $199.99 after a $50 rebate, and with a two year mobile broadband contract. VZW's mobile broadband plans begin at $39.99 per month.

Though HP released its own custom version of Ubuntu specifically for netbooks, the models which Verizon will be selling will be equipped with Windows XP.