Remember NetZero? Back in the day, and by that we mean the 1990s, they wooed customers with free dial-up service. And now, after some time lying low in the Internet game, the company is coming back with an offer for one year of wireless broadband service with no contract.

Contracts are so annoyingly binding, which is why NetZero is trying to lure in customers with its super low price for Wi-Fi, says USA Today. Cheap or prepaid plans give consumers another choice beyond the major wireless carriers.

The no-contract plans for laptop and tablet owners will come in several pricing tiers from NetZero. The “free” plan only lasts for a year, and includes a $50 fee for a wireless USB card, and up to 200 megabytes per month. That’s just enough for email and surfing the webbernets, but not good enough for video streaming.

Up from there is a $100 “mobile hot spot” that allows for up to eight Wi-Fi devices to connect to the Internet, and up to 200 MB of data per month. If you go over, the gates come down and you have no service until the next month, with convenient messages suggesting you up your plan.

It’s basically all a tease to get you to sign on for bigger and better things, data-wise, but for some Internet users, it could be a perfect, if not temporary, fit.

NetZero offers free Wi-Fi ‘teaser’ service for 1 year [USA Today]

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