Orange launches Eee 901 with embedded 3G

Orange will soon offer its first netbook with embedded 3G and bundled airtime.

The operator already offers the Asus Eee 900 with an external mobile-broadband dongle, but yesterday it announced it would start selling the Eee 901 with an embedded SIM, for the same price.

The Eee 901 uses Intel's Atom processor, which is less power-hungry than the older Celeron processor used in the 900. The specification of Orange's version of the 901 includes a 16GB solid-state drive.

Orange is not the first UK operator to offer an embedded-3G netbook -- Vodafone, with its Dell Mini 9, is already there. However, both operators are offering their bundles on £25-per-month, 24-month contract terms, with Orange offering 3GB of usage per month, and Vodafone only offering 1GB.

Asus announced in December last year that it was to start rolling out embedded-3G 901s. Orange's version will become available in mid-November.