With everyone jumping into the world of small form factor subnotebooks, it really shouldn’t be all that surprising that the guys at Vodafone are entering the fray with Vodafone NetPC. The kicker is that Vodafone isn’t exactly offering a new piece of hardware like how Dell and Acer are doing. Instead, they’ve got the service covered.

Vodafone Portugal is launching what they call NetPC. When you sign up for this, you get a Asus Eee PC 701 and a Vodafone Connect Pen. In this way, you can enjoy high-speed Internet anywhere you go, rather than being restricted to Wi-Fi hotspot. The USB modem allows connections up to 7.2Mbps. My question is… why the 701? That’s old news!

In any case, if you go for the Linux-powered Eee, it’ll cost you 199.90 Euro. The XP model goes for 229.90 Euro. In both instances, you’ll need to sign up for an 18-month contract.