By Sarah Left, 20 January 2000 10:32
NEWS Educational equipment rental firm ABK has launched a deal to let teachers and students rent notebook PCs for £5 per week. The company is offering 400MHz Toshiba notebooks running Windows 98 under a three-year contract that includes free Internet access, free maintenance and free insurance. ABK hopes to finalise a scheme in the coming weeks that will let advertising revenues pick up the call charges. That would give students and teachers Internet access for £780 over a three-year period. ABK has rented 600 of the notebooks since the scheme kicked off at the beginning of this month, and they is hoping to rent 60,000 by the end of the year. The company's main line of business is renting Electrolux cookers to schools, but it hit on the idea of renting notebooks when it realised that most schools are investing in desktop PCs. According to Mike Fitton, the company's CEO, notebooks are a better choice than desktop PCs as they provide online learning materials both in the classroom and at home. "The model is the same as musical instruments, where parents have always had to rent one for their child," he said. More information is available at http://www.abknet.com .
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