The problem: You are a telco, and you give away netbooks in order to lock customers into lengthy 3G internet contracts. The customer does a runner and stops paying his bills. With a cellphone, simply cutting the service from afar would make the handset useless. But with a netbook? The customer still has a fully working computer.
The solution: Fit a kill switch that can disable the netbook from afar. This is exactly what Ericsson has done, and it even has a catchy name for the tech: "We call it a 'kill pill," Ericsson VP Mats Norin told the Associated Press.
The mobile broadband card, called the F3607gw, has other features, such as low power consumption and wake-on-wireless capability, but its the remote control that is the most interesting. By sending an SMS to the unit, the card speaks to Intel's ATT (Anti-Theft Technology) inside the machine. This not only locks down the hard drive but the actual computer itself. Even swapping in a new drive wouldn't wake the computer from its deathly slumber.
Morally, we're confused on this one. When you sign a contract, you are agreeing to honor an agreement. Break it and the injured party has a right to redress, and to repossess its property. On the other hand, handing life or death control of our equipment over to somebody else is always a chilling thought. Our advice? Buy your own machine and stick a 3G USB dongle in the side. But then, we're control freaks. In fact, give us the handle of the kill switch so we disable our machines if they are stolen.
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