Best Buy will end its Best Buy Connect mobile broadband service for existing customers on June 1 and is not accepting any new activations effective immediately, the company said Thursday.
What gives? Best Buys says it "can achieve greater growth by delivering mobile broadband support in ways other than an exclusive Best Buy-branded service," according to Engadget, which first reported the shuttering of Best Buy Connect.
The retailer launched the service in July 2010, offering 5GB of data usage for about $60 a month for access to Sprint 3G coverage in 18,900 cities and 1,855 airports throughout the United States. Best Buy also offered a cheaper, 500MB data plan for $40 per month, plus a 250MB option priced at $30 available only to non-contract holders which levied overage fees but no early-termination fees (ETFs) like the plans for contract holders.
Those ETFs— $125 for Best Buy Connect users with a one-year contract and $175 for those with a two-year contract—are being waived by Best Buy now that it's shutting down the service entirely. The retailer is also emailing out $125 and $150 gift cards to Best Buy Connect customers "to curb the cost of moving to a different carrier," according to Engadget.
Folks using Best Buy's WiMAX Connect service will also have the option to move over to Clear service, the tech blog reported.
Changes to the ways various Internet service providers deliver service appear to be snowballing as carriers, ISPs, and companies like Best Buy reassess the economics of old ways of doing business. Earlier this month, for example, it was reported that Verizon is preparing to end-of-life its standalone, or "naked" DSL service because it isn't making enough money to justify building out and servicing fixed lines without a landline telephone account associated with them.
Best Buy, meanwhile, is going through some restructuring pains in other areas. The company announced in March that it will shut down 50 big box store in the U.S. in 2013, though it does plan to increase the number of its smaller Best Buy Mobile stores from a little over 300 to as many as 800 by the end of 2016.
